Reality Through Indirect Understanding
Open MIND July 22, 2025 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18398752 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Realm Construct python library Positivism Consciousness Empirical research Cognition Observer physics Epistemology Empirical evidence Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Reflexivity Intersection aeronautics Management science Context archaeology |
| Key points | Proposes that a methodological approach called 'Trusting Reality Through Proxy' can build reliable knowledge about subjective phenomena that evade direct empirical scrutiny. |
Abstract
How does one investigate the observer using the tools of observation? This question cuts to the heart of an enduring epistemological challenge: the phenomena we most urgently need to comprehend—consciousness, subjective experience, the texture of reality itself—persistently evade direct empirical scrutiny. Traditional positivist methodologies assume that valid knowledge must be observable, measurable, and repeatable. Yet this framework collapses when we turn our attention inward, toward the very substrate of experience that makes all observation possible. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for "Trusting Reality Through Proxy"—a methodological approach that neither dismisses subjective phenomena as unknowable nor forces them into ill-fitting empirical categories. Instead, it offers structured methods for building reliable understanding through indirect means. Emerging from the intersection of cognitive science, consciousness studies, and pragmatic epistemology, this framework addresses a critical gap: how to construct systematic knowledge about experiences that exist primarily in the subjective realm of individual consciousness, at the boundaries of current observational capabilities, or in the dynamic interplay between minds.