In Kant's framework, what does the phenomenal world refer to?

In Kant's philosophy, the phenomenal world refers to the way things appear to us through our experiences and perceptions, shaped by our cognitive faculties. This aligns with the notion that what we perceive is filtered through our mental processing and interpretation. Thus, in this context, the phenomenal world encompasses "things as they exist in our minds," emphasizing that our understanding of the world is not an absolute reflection of reality but rather a construction influenced by our perceptions and mental capabilities.

Kant distinguished between the phenomenal world, which is accessible to human experience, and the noumenal world, which represents an objective reality independent of our perceptions. Therefore, the correct understanding emphasizes that the phenomenal realm is not the reality as it truly exists but rather how the mind perceives and conceptualizes that reality, illustrating the critical distinction in Kantian philosophy regarding human experience and knowledge.