The problem as I higlighted in another thread is:Impenitent wrote: ↑Tue Oct 01, 2024 3:49 pm quick question...
there are perceptions
from these perceptions, we posit an underlying noumenal cause
these noumenal causes cannot be known as they are never directly perceived (we only have the perceptions)
yet some unknown noumena is treated as if it is known or knowable...
it is built into the language itself
-Imp
Kant differentiated in his CPR 'Erkenntnis' [cognition] which precede Wissen [Knowledge] to highlight they both have difference underlying process.
The problem was the NK Smith translated and conflated 'Erkenntnis' [cognition] as "knowledge" in English, thus its subs known, know and unknown in terms of 'knowledge'.
NK Smith's translation happened to be the most popular English translation at one period until the Guyer & Wood translation corrected it.
The correct translation from German thus should be 'the noumenon or thing-in-itself cannot be cognized'
Since Erkenntnis' [cognition] preceded Wissen [Knowledge],
and that the noumenon cannot be cognized
therefore the question of noumenon being known or unknown is moot and a non-starter.
The statement or translation by NK Smith, i.e.
the noumenon or thing-in-itself is unknown is false.
The correct translation by Guyer & Wood is:The true correlate of Sensibility, the Thing-in-Itself, is not Known, and cannot be Known, through these Representations; and in Experience no question is ever asked in regard to it. B45 NK Smith
See the difference and the mistake that misled the philosophical realists who only have hearsays of translations of Smith to la la land.and that what we call outer objects are nothing other than mere representations of our Sensibility, whose Form is Space, but whose true correlate, i.e., the Thing-in-Itself, is not and cannot be cognized [Erkenntnis] through them, but is also never asked after in Experience. CPR B45 Guyer & Wood