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A 'phenomenon' (Greek: , pl. ''phenomena'' ) is an observed event or, quite literally, something that is seen. The word (''phainomenon, df. appearance'') is a participle formed from the verb (''phainein, df. to show'').

Contents

General sense and use

Kant's use of ''phenomenon''

References

See also

Quotations

General sense and use

In general, apart from its original use as a term in philosophy, ''phenomenon'' stands for any observed event. Some observable events are commonplace, while others require delicate manipulation of expensive and sensitive equipment. Phenomena make up the raw data of science, and are often exploited by technology.
Phenomenon can also mean a "surprising development" or "unusually successful person".^[1][2][3]

Kant's use of ''phenomenon''

''Phenomenon'' has a specialized meaning in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, who contrasted the term ''phenomenon'' with ''noumenon'' in the ''Critique of Pure Reason''. Phenomena according to Kant are objects of sensible intuition, sensible entities coextensive with appearances. A noumenon on the other hand is an object exclusively of understanding; it is an object that is given only to a subject's intellect or understanding, i.e., not given by sensibility. As such, the noumenon and Kant's thing-in-itself (Ding an sich) are closely related; for Kant they refer to the same things. However, they differ in that the thing-in-itself is an ontological concept of an object as it is constituted in itself, while the noumenon is an epistemological concept of an object of a certain mode of cognition, namely intellectual intuition. Both, however, cannot be known. The concept of 'phenomena' relates to the tradition of philosophy called phenomenology. Leading figures in phenomenology - the science of objects as they appear - include Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and influenced Derrida, Deleuze and many other thinkers. Kant's account of phenomena has also been influential in the development of psychodynamic models of psychology, and of theories concerning the ways in which the brain, mind and external world interact.

References

1. Phenomenon at Wordnet
2.
Cambridge Online Dictionary: Phenomenon as object
3.
Cambridge Online Dictionary: Phenomenon as success

See also

★ Scientific phenomena named after people

★ Phenomenalism

★ Phenomenology

★ Existentialism

Quotations

★ "No phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon" Niels Bohr.

★ "Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena." - Wilhelm Reich

★ "To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all." Sir William Osler

★ "If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only fact, or the description of one actual phenomenon, to infer all the particular results at that point." Henry David Thoreau