The Epistemic Gap, Psychology, and the Scientific Method
The ‘epistemic gap’ was introduced in 1972 by Thomas Nagel who suggested that “one cannot fully understand the mind unless one is experiencing that mind.” To put his point across, Nagel used a bat as an example asking, “Could a human ever claim he knew what it was like to be a bat?” In other words only a bat can truly know his mind like only a human can know his.
Translate that to,” can we as humans ever be capable of understanding someone else’s mind?” Is the mind a separate thing in our bodies? No one including the most notable researchers and scientists can truly understand the mind can they? If you stop believing in the statement that what can’t be measured, can’t be real, and substitute that with a Buddhist belief, which is the mind must be experienced ‘first-person’ or it isn’t a mind.
For example, meditation is a means to discover one’s inner self. Medication is a first person experience. Since no other people can be let in, we can only share with our selves. Since Science uses a third-person approach and Buddhism uses first-person there should be a way to combine both. If a person can gain insight by reflecting on his or her self, isn’t that also using tools we’ve inherited through life and education to know one’s mind? Isn’t that a combination of using third and first person to knowing one’s mind?
We know that science will always involve study of the mind taking on a third person approach, and there will also be objective psychologists and psychiatrist who will study subjects and report their findings so that their practices can be become a standard method of treatment. This is not a bad thing for certainly many people need coaching and guidance before they are ready to take on their ‘own’ mind though meditation or other non-scientific programs like yoga and other natural mind and body holistic and alternative medicine approaches.
But taking on the challenge of going solo into the ‘soul’ of the mind has unimaginable rewards of getting so deep inside ourselves by ourselves that we are able to put mind over matter and truly know ourselves.
