thing-in-itself

[ thing-in-it-self ]

noun

, Kantianism.

, plural things-in-them·selves [thingz-in-, th, uh, m-, selvz].

1. reality as it is apart from experience; what remains to be postulated after space, time, and all the categories of the understanding are assigned to consciousness. Compare noumenon ( def 3 ).

thing-in-itself

noun

1. (in the philosophy of Kant) an element of the noumenal rather than the phenomenal world, of which the senses give no knowledge but whose bare existence can be inferred from the nature of experience

thing-in-itself

1. A notion in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant . A thing-in-itself is an object as it would appear to us if we did not have to approach it under the conditions of space and time.

Word History and Origins

Origin of thing-in-itself¹

1650–60; translation of German Ding an sich

Example Sentences

As a philosopher, he is interesting for his criticism of the theory of the “thing-in-itself” (Ding-an-sich).

From Project Gutenberg

As thing-in-itself, the Will is exempt even from the first of the forms of knowledge, the form of being 'object for a subject.'

From Project Gutenberg

For the will, though the nearest we can get to the thing-in-itself, is in truth a partially phenomenalised expression of this.

From Project Gutenberg

On the other hand, everything as thing-in-itself is free; for 'freedom' means only non-subjection to that law.

From Project Gutenberg

Ultimately, freedom is a mystery, and takes us beyond even will as the name for the thing-in-itself.

From Project Gutenberg