The Elimination of the Thing-in-Itself: Farewell to the Mystery!

Why complicate life with abstract concepts? The elimination of the thing-in-itself solved everything... or did it? Here’s what it means to live without philosophical mysteries.

Philosophy for Lazy People: The Thing-in-Itself No Longer Exists

Have you ever felt that philosophy is just a big riddle designed to confuse you? Well, you’re in good company. For centuries, philosophers like Kant have told us that there’s this mysterious thing, the thing-in-itself, that exists but we can’t perceive it. And everyone has been banging their heads trying to understand what it means. Then, finally, someone had the brilliant idea to say: "What if this ‘thing-in-itself’ didn’t exist at all?" Yes, you read that right: we can happily eliminate the idea of something we can never experience. Problem solved, right? Or maybe not...

Since Kant’s time, the thing-in-itself has been an obsession for anyone who’s ever cracked open a philosophy book. It was like trying to solve a puzzle without having all the pieces. But what happens when we remove that missing piece? Does everything become clearer, or do we end up with another mystery? And here’s where today’s topic comes in: the elimination of the thing-in-itself.

We’ve said goodbye to this concept, but is the gap it left behind really a relief? Or have we just swept the problem under the rug, avoiding the harder questions? In the next section, you’ll find out why this philosophical elimination has made everything seem easier but actually only moved the problem to a different spot. Kind of like changing the sheets without making the bed.

A Story of Simplified Philosophies and Guaranteed Confusion

Eliminating the thing-in-itself wasn’t a minor move. It all started with a guy named Kant, who came up with this whole noumenon and phenomenon thing. Essentially, he said there’s a reality we can perceive (the phenomenon) and one we can never truly know (the noumenon or the thing-in-itself). Don’t ask me why anyone would want to torture themselves like this. But then, other philosophers came along and thought: “Why make life harder? The thing-in-itself doesn’t exist, and we’re done!”. The end of the story? Not quite!

• 1781: Kant publishes his "Critique of Pure Reason" and drives generations of students crazy with the whole noumenon thing.
• 1807: Hegel says "I don’t get Kant" and launches the idea of the absolute spirit, creating even more confusion.
• 19th century: Schopenhauer claims that the thing-in-itself is will, and suddenly everyone feels oppressed by a dark force.
• 20th century: Philosophers like Carnap and Quine come along and decide to eliminate the thing-in-itself to simplify everything... or so they thought.

But eliminating a concept isn’t as easy as it seems. It’s a bit like taking an ingredient out of a recipe and expecting the dish to still taste good. Spoiler: it doesn’t. The elimination of the thing-in-itself has left us with a void that’s hard to fill. But at least we can say that, without it, philosophy has become a bit less of a brain twister.

In the End, Is Everything Really Clearer?

We’ve reached the conclusion, and if you’ve made it this far, congratulations! Now you know everything about the elimination of the thing-in-itself and its philosophical consequences. The question is: did removing the thing-in-itself make life simpler? Not really. Maybe we removed a piece of the puzzle, but what’s left is an even more confusing picture.

Because, in the end, what we’re left with is a reality that we know only through our perception. Everything else is out of reach. Sure, we could say that philosophy became more accessible by eliminating unnecessarily abstract concepts, but... haven’t we lost a bit of its mysterious charm? Like watching an action movie without plot twists: it works, but something’s missing.