A ManiFESTo for a Science of Mind
FEST log
Entry #000
February 29, 2024
Empirical studies of mind using mind
Science gives us the power of a remarkably deep knowledge of matter. In doing so it has purged many harmful superstitions. Unfortunately, as collateral damage, it has also purged much wisdom that had been accumulated and actively maintained in older cultures.
Attempts have been made in education to complement science, seen as impersonal and lacking in human values related to mind, through the humanities and arts to bridge the gap between the two. In practice, though, there still seem to be more rifts than bridges.
In this log, I will explore a radical alternative, in an experiment to combine the best of both worlds. I propose to adapt the basic methodology of science, empirical investigations using working hypotheses, to the study of mind. More precisely: while science so far has studied matter empirically using material tools, I propose to study the mind empirically using the mind.
A necessary ingredient: a technology of mind
To study the stars we use a telescope, while studying cells we use a microscope. It would make no sense to switch the two: every type of science has developed its own toolbox for empirical investigations fitting to the objects under study. What all disciplines in natural science have in common, though, is that they use tools made out of matter in order to study the behavior of matter.
For a true science of mind, we would expect to study the mind using the mind itself. We can certainly learn very interesting and useful facts about the physical composition and processes in brains, using material tools. However, we are still very far from understanding the intricate ways in which brains and minds are correlated.
An argument against using the mind to study the mind, is that such an approach would be too subjective, while using material tools is the only way in which we can produce objectively valid results. But objectivity here is shorthand for individual scientists using their own minds to study matter, and reaching intersubjective convergence in a community of peers. There is no a priori reason that with sufficient caution the same approach cannot be developed for the study of mind.
From engineering to science
In many cultures, over thousands of years, more and more detailed knowledge was acquired of novel engineering techniques. Yet unexpectedly, a more universal and more abstract approach to studying matter became available in only a few generations in Western Europe. The road toward modern science was traversed between Galileo's dropping stones from the tower of Pisa and Newton's recognizing that the Moon falls in an orbit around the Earth in a similar way as an apple falls from a tree.
My working hypothesis is that we are now in a position to make a similar transition from thousands of years of contemplative studies of the mind to a science of mind. Engineering knowledge was protected by trade secrets, and the advent of science was revolutionary in freely spreading its knowledge in an open-source way. That term became popular in the eighties for freely available software, but the idea started in the 17th century.
Like engineering, the contemplative cores of religious traditions were off limits not only to adherents of other traditions, but also to most people in the same tradition, largely for good reasons. However, in the current climate of openness and connectedness, the living remnants of older contemplative movements have no choice but to become more open as well. This makes them candidates for joining forces in establishing a science of mind.
The signs are everywhere: time to get FESTive
This manifesto is just the first step of a new program. And since programs need to have a name, I propose FEST, short for Fully Engaged Science and Technology. Fully engaged in pairing our science of matter with a fledgling science of mind in the hope to find a unification of both approaches in which practitioners can be fully engaged, qua body and mind.
And to do double duty: another reading could be Fully Empirical Science and Technology, where a science of matter uses material instruments and a science of mind uses mental instruments, such as Husserl's epoché, just to mention a rare Western philosopher who made that move. This is the end of my maniFESTo, celebrating the start of this log in a festive way, while inviting anyone interested to join me in this new adventure.
– Piet Hut