7/31/2019 Phenomenon and Theory

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PHENOMENON

A phenomenon (from Greeko), plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence.[1]

Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'. These are

themselves sometimes understood as involving qualia.

The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it

with noumenon (for which he used the termDing an sich, or "thing-in-itself"), which, in contrast

to phenomena, are not directly accessible to observation. Kant was heavily influenced by Leibniz

in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated

technical terms.

THEORY

The English word theory was derived from a technical term in philosophy in Ancient Greek. The

wordtheoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation

or speculation, as opposed to action.[1]Theory is especially often contrasted to "practice" (fromGreekpraxis, ) a Greek term for "doing", which is opposed to theory because theory

involved no doing apart from itself.

A classical example of the distinction between theoretical and practical uses the discipline of

medicine: Medical theory and theorizing involves trying to understand the causes and nature of

health and sickness, while the practical side of medicine is trying to make people healthy. These

two things are related but can be independent, because it is possible to research health and

sickness without curing specific patients, and it is possible to cure a patient without knowing

how the cure worked.[2]

By extension of the philosophical meaning, "theoria" is also a word still used in theologicalcontexts.

In modern contexts, while theories in the arts and philosophy may address ideas and empirical

phenomena which are not easily measurable, in modern science the term "theory", or "scientific

theory" is generally understood to refer to a proposed explanation ofempirical phenomena, made

in a way consistent with scientific method. Such theories are preferably described in such a way

that any scientist in the field is in a position to understand and either provide empirical support

("verify") or empirically contradict ("falsify") it. In this modern scientific context the distinction

between theory and practice corresponds roughly to the distinction between theoretical science

and technology or applied science.

A common distinction made in science is between theories and hypotheses. Hypotheses are

individual empirically testable conjectures; while theories are collections of hypotheses that are

logically linked together into a coherent explanation of some aspect of reality and which have

individually or jointly received some empirical support.

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