denman - ten major u.s. disasters on sig
..........where dark glasses are compulsory on sunday mornings. I will check my archives for a more eloborate explanation, in the meantime well done Swans, cost me $40 but one of the best grand finals for yrs.
This is a useful 'dictionary' & a handy addition to 'favourites'.
Noumenon [from Greek noeo to perceive with the mind, think; cf nous] Plural Noumena. An object perceived by the mind apart from the senses, an object of cognition. Also the unknown real entity, substance, or essential thing-in-itself, which the mind perforce posits as the basis of the phenomenon, appearance, or objective thing; hence reality as distinguished from apparent or sensible qualities. Thus aether or akasa is called the noumenon of ether; noumena are the conscious guiding causes behind the physical cosmic forces and elements. The emphasis is upon consciousness and intelligence as opposed to mere appearances, or to the conception of the blind forces and inert elements of materialism. Behind every phenomenon must lie a noumenon: the former is the intelligent cause, the latter the produced effect or appearance.
Phenomena [from Greek phainomena appearances from phainomai to appear] The impermanent, ever-changing outward appearances of things, as opposed to onta, the permanent enduring realities behind. Also, objects of perception as opposed to objects of cognition; that which is perceived by the senses, contrasted with that which is conceived by the mind. The word correlates with both meanings of noumena. Under the first meaning it may be said that, in one sense, everything is phenomenal except the one Reality; but the word may also be used relatively. Under the second meaning, we may speak of phenomena as a word stressing the mechanical aspect of things, as contrasted with the unseen intelligences behind, as in the contrast between the forces of science and the intelligent noumena of which they are merely the manifestations.
In modern popular use it also denotes a supernormal event, such as an exercise of occult or magical powers, or again a portent, what the Latins would have called a prodigy.
Nominalists, Nominalism [from Latin nomen name] In the 11th century, Scholastic controversy arose between the Nominalists and Realists, as to whether substantive reality should be ascribed to particulars or to universals. The Nominalists held that nothing exists but individuals, and that universals are mere names invented to express the qualities of particular things. Thus the conception "man" is a mere abstract idea, a figment of the mind, devised to express certain qualities which we have abstracted from our experience of individual men, but having no existence except as a name. The Realists, on the contrary, maintained that universals alone have substantive reality, and that they exist independently of, and prior to, the individuals, which are derivative from them or expressive of them. The controversy dates back to Aristotle's question as to whether genera, species, and abstract nouns are real or only convenient abstractions and ways of speaking.
