Concept
Thing-in-itself
Overview
In Kantian philosophy, the thing-in-itself (German: Ding an sich) is the status of objects as they are, independent of representation and observation. The concept of the thing-in-itself was introduced by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and over the following centuries was met with controversy among later philosophers. It is closely related to Kant's concept of noumena or the objects of inquiry, as opposed to phenomena, its manifestations.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
This that withholds itself from investigation, however, is the thing-in-itself, is that which is essentially not idea, not object of knowledge, but has only become knowable by entering that form. The form is originally foreign to it, and the thing-in-itself can never become entirely one with it, can never be referred to mere form, and, since this form is the principle of sufficient reason, can never be completely…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
The author is tied to Thing-in-itself in the knowledge graph; names Thing-in-itself twice.
Whoever, therefore, imagines, requires, or seeks any basis for this Autonomy external to itself, can only be regarded by the Kantian School as wanting in moral consciousness;[13] or else as failing to interpret this consciousness correctly, through the employment of false first principles in his speculations. The School of Fichte and Schelling declares him to be afflicted with a dulness of intellect that renders him…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The Basis of Morality
The author is tied to Thing-in-itself in the knowledge graph.
The physical object, which he calls the 'thing in itself',(1) he regards as essentially unknowable; what can be known is the object as we have it in experience, which he calls the 'phenomenon'. The phenomenon, being a joint product of us and the thing in itself, is sure to have those characteristics which are due to us, and is therefore sure to conform to our _a priori_ knowledge.
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy
Names Thing-in-itself several times; opens on Thing-in-itself.
Philosophers who discussed Thing-in-itself
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte
- Karl Leonhard Reinhold
- Immanuel Kant
- Constantin Noica
- Mou Tsung-san
- Eduard von Hartmann
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Giovanni Gentile
- Charles Renouvier
- Salomon Maimon
- Jakob Sigismund Beck
- Branislav Petronijević
Related ideas
- Category (Kant)
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte
- The World as Will and Representation
- Immanuel Kant
- Parerga and Paralipomena
- Causality
- Transcendental idealism
- Philipp Mainländer
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Gottlob Ernst Schulze
- Aenesidemus (book)
- Critique of the Kantian Philosophy
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Agnosticism.