Reality Through Indirect Understanding
Open MIND July 22, 2025 Dion Fryson
Investigating the observer with the tools of observation presents a fundamental epistemological challenge, as consciousness and subjective experience resist direct empirical scrutiny. Traditional positivist methods, which require observability and measurability, fail when applied to the inner substrate of experience that makes observation possible. This paper introduces 'Trusting Reality Through Proxy,' a framework that neither dismisses subjective phenomena nor forces them into unsuitable empirical categories. It offers structured indirect methods for building reliable understanding, drawing from cognitive science, consciousness studies, and pragmatic epistemology. The framework addresses how to construct systematic knowledge about experiences existing primarily in subjective consciousness, at the boundaries of current observational capabilities, or in the dynamic interplay between minds.