phenomenal world

English

Noun

phenomenal world (plural phenomenal worlds)

1. (philosophy) Especially in philosophical idealism, the world as it appears to human beings as a result of being structured by human understanding; the world as experienced, as opposed to the world of things-in-themselves.
   • 1876, Robert Adamson, "Schopenhauer's Philosophy," Mind, vol. 1, no. 4, p. 500:

     With intelligence springs up at a stroke the phenomenal world, the world as we know it.

   • 1970, James Gibson, "The Information Available in Pictures," Leonardo, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 27:

     He . . . suggests a new theory based on the radical assumption that light can convey information about the world and, hence, that the phenomenal world does not have to be constructed by the mind (or the brain) out of meaningless data.

   • 2004, Zong-qi Cai, "The Influence of Nietzsche in Wang Guowei's Essay ‘On the Dream of the Red Chamber’," Philosophy East and West, vol. 54, no. 2, p. 172:

     It is true that Wang does write about the power of tragedy to pierce the illusions of the phenomenal world and release us from the bondage of the "desires of life."

See also

• external world
• noumenon
• real world