The Brooks

Here are lecture notes on Kant snd the noumena from Dr. Davis. This hopefully will help with the discussion in the comments section of this post.

[A] There are 2 senses of the term ‘noumenon’

[A1] The negative sense - that which is not an object of sensible intuition

[A2] The positive sense - that which is the object of a non-sensible (intellectual) intuition

[B] ‘Noumenon’ must be understood in the negative sense

[B1] There is no faculty of intuition

[B2] ‘Doubtless’ there are noumena corresponding to the phenomena, but the categories don’t apply to them.

[B2i] For the categories are ‘forms of thought’ for sensible intuition.

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Ben, earlier you said:

This isn’t really all that true. Kant believed that the Noumenal is “thought by understanding alone.” He never said we can’t know it at all, just not through sensation.

I’m not sure where you got your definition from… I have Critique right here in front of me and I’m quoting the man himself.

Does this help? It seems that the noumena cannot be understood in the positive sense, which I believe your quote was referring to. I could be wrong though, but that’s how I read Dr. D’s lecture notes.