Phenomenon
In the book Two Carts and a Hot Air Balloon, the Rabbi claims that Kant’s phenomenon is not a human limitation – that we encounter only the phenomena that appear to our eyes, but that appearances exist only in human perception (for example, there is no vision but an electromagnetic wave, which is translated into vision in our consciousness, but there is no “vision” in reality).
The question is whether this is related to Kant. The concepts the Rabbi is talking about are human concepts, which really only appear when there is a consciousness that is observing, but when a tree falls there is no noise (there is only a wave), and only in the consciousness of the observer is it translated into sounds.
Kant also said this about causality, it’s a statement about reality, there is a side that causality does not appear when there is no human consciousness observing???
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Didn't Kant link causality to phenomena?
Yes, connection. He argued that causality is a transcendental concept (preceding experience). I disagree with him on that. In my opinion, we derive causality from observing the world with the eyes of reason.
So if so, Kant's phenomenon is indeed related to the limitations of human consciousness, and he is not here to state a principle that the phenomenon is the real thing.
He claims that the phenomenon is based on our forms of perception and that is the real thing. I disagree with him on this (regarding causality. Regarding colors and sensory perceptions, I certainly do. But that is really not the main point of his innovation, if at all).
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