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> Kant already made it clear that our experience of the world by definition is something different from the world in itself. He didn't make it "clear" if by "c
by danielam 9y ago
> Kant already made it clear that our experience of the world by definition is something different from the world in itself.
He didn't make it "clear" if by "clear" you mean he demonstrated this to be true. Why posit noumena at all if all that is knowable are phenomena?
> For example, EM radiation of certain wavelengths hit the eyes which cause us to experience colors. So strictly speaking colors do not exist in "the world in itself", they are a function of the human mind.
That's not really Kantian. But in any case, appealing to EM radiation and minds as the true causes of color is appealing to unknowable noumena. You're dismissing color as mere phenomena, but how could you even come to know that to be the case? After all, as you say, all you really know are phenomena.
- tux1968 9y agoColors do exist as named segments of the visual spectrum. The internal experience of each color in our minds, is something separate and different from that external stimulus. What did I get wrong?
- dqpb 9y agoPeople are very uncomfortable with abstractions, to the extent that they claim they don't really exist.
- olavk 9y agoIt is more complicated. For example, the color magenta does not correspond to a single segment of the EM spectrum. Due to how the eyes work, magenta is caused by light of two different wavelength. This is the reason magenta is not in the rainbow even though it is one of the primary colors (e.g. one of the colors used in printer ink). So the experience of color is very much determined by the design of the sensory organs.
- tux1968 9y agoOkay. However the main point is there is something objective, and external to the observer, that is being perceived. That phenomena no matter how complex or disjointed, can reasonably be labelled color. The experience of color, even with all the intricacies and deficiencies of human perception, is another matter. When I ask you to think of the color blue, you can recall the experience with no need for the visual stimuli. The word can refer to parts of the EM spectrum or to the experience, or both.
- olavk 9y ago> Why posit noumena at all if all that is knowable are phenomena? You don't need it for typical interactions with the world, but when you start examining how the sensory apparatus and the mind experience the world, you need the distinction.