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{{short description|Epistemological term}}
{{Notability|1=Neologisms|date=April 2023}}
'''Noogony''' is a general term for any [[epistemology|theory of knowledge]] that attempts to explain the origin of [[concept]]s in the [[mind|human mind]] by considering sense or ''[[Empirical evidence|a posteriori]]'' data as solely relevant.<ref>Torretti, Roberto. ''Observation'', The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 37, No. 1. (Mar., 1986), pp. 1-23</ref>

==Overview==
The word was used, famously, by [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] in his ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' to refer to what he understood to be [[John Locke|Locke's]] account of the origin of concepts.<ref>Kant, Immanuel. ''Critique of Pure Reason'', A271/B327 (p. 372 in Guyer/Wood)</ref> While Kant himself maintained that some concepts, e.g. [[causality|cause and effect]], did not ''arise'' from experience,<ref>"But although [all human] cognition commences '''with''' experience, yet it does not on that account all arise '''from''' experience." Kant, Immanuel. ''Critique of Pure Reason'', B1 (p. 136 in Guyer/Wood)</ref> he took Locke to be suggesting that ''all'' concepts came from experience.

Historically, Kant presents a caricature of Locke's position, not a completely accurate account of Locke's epistemology. Locke's actual theory of knowledge was more subtle than Kant seems to render it in his ''Critique''. As Guyer/Wood note <ref>Kant, Immanuel. ''Critique of Pure Reason'', note 105, (p. 734 in Guyer/Wood)</ref> in their edition of the ''Critique'':<blockquote>Presumably Kant here has in mind Locke's claim that sensation and reflection are the two sources of all our ideas,<ref>Locke, John. ''Essay concerning Human Understanding'', bk. II, ch. i, §§ 3-4</ref> and is understanding Locke's reflection to be reflection on sensation only. This would be a misunderstanding of Locke, since Locke says that we get simple ideas from reflection on the "operations of our own Mind," a doctrine which is actually a precursor to Kant's view that the laws of our own intuition and thinking furnish the forms of knowledge to be added to the empirical contents furnished by sensation, although of course Locke did not go very far in developing this doctrine; in particular, he did not see that mathematics and logic could be used as sources of information about the operations of the mind.</blockquote>

== See also ==
* [[Noology]]

== References ==
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[[Category:Epistemological theories]]
[[Category:Kantianism]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]


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