Editing Unobservable (section)

== Kant on noumena ==
The distinction between "observable" and "unobservable" is similar to [[Immanuel Kant]]'s distinction between [[noumenon|noumena]] and [[phenomenon|phenomena]]. Noumena are the [[thing-in-itself|things-in-themselves]], i.e., raw things in their necessarily unknowable state,<ref>[[Stephen Palmquist|Palmquist, S. R.]], "The Radical Unknowability of Kant's 'Thing in Itself'", [[Cogito (magazine)|''Cogito'']] 3:2 (March 1985), pp. 101-115; reprinted as Appendix V of [https://staffweb.hkbu.edu.hk/ppp/ksp1/ Kant's System of Perspectives] ([[Lanham, Maryland|Lanham, MD]]: [[University Press of America]], 1993).</ref> before they pass through the formalizing apparatus of the senses and the mind in order to become perceived objects, which he refers to as "phenomena". According to Kant, humans can never know noumena; all that humans know is the phenomena.