Kant contended that “the phenomenal world is an expression of power and that the source from which this power comes can only be the noumenal world beyond.” According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kant described a noumenon as, “the thing-in-itself ( das Ding an sich) as opposed to what Kant called the phenomenon-the thing as it appears to an observer.” He used this terminology to distinguish between speculative reason and practical (or moral) reason. He provided definitions for both noumena and phenomena. Immanuel Kant’s work in philosophy had a large impact on how we understand phenomena today. The Online Etymology Dictionary explains that an -a is “the nominative neuter plural ending of certain nouns and adjectives in Latin and Greek that have been adopted into English.” Immanuel Kant and Phenomena In the 1570’s, the word made its way into the English language, referring to “a fact directly observed, a thing that appears or is perceived, an occurrence.”Īs a word borrowed directly from Latin, the singular form phenomenon retained the plural phenomena.
By Late Latin, the spelling phænomenon emerged. Already, the Greek phainomenon resembled our modern word “phenomenon”. The passive form, phainesthai, meant “to appear.” From the neuter present participle of phainesthai, we get the noun form, phainomenon. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word phenomenon originated with the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root bha-, meaning “to shine.” The Greek word phainein, to “bring to light, cause to appear, show,” developed from that PIE root.
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