Noumenon

Noumenon is a philosophical term, primarily associated with Immanuel Kant, that refers to things as they are in themselves, independent of our perception. In contrast to phenomena, which are the way objects appear to us through our senses, noumena represent the objective reality that exists outside our experience. Kant suggested that while we can know the phenomena—the world as we perceive it—noumena are fundamentally unknowable, as our understanding is limited by our sensory experience and cognitive framework. Thus, noumenon points to the aspects of reality that lie beyond human observation and comprehension.