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There are ancient roots to the use of observation and rational thinking to understand the world but here I am addressing the issue of modern 'empiricism'.

Also see these articles on naïve realism,   Scientistic Heresy,   Reclaiming Genuine Religion for Humanity and Thoughts on the Outline of a Unified Science.

Historical Context

Europe had suffered from many centuries of abuse from a totalitarian regime that caused massive regression of the collective consciousness thus giving rise to what is often called “the dark ages”. This began when the Roman empire co-opted the mystic teachings of a small but powerful Christian sect and reinterpret their subtle analogies in purely naïve realist, materialist terms. By taking certain analogies literally they created a fictional supernatural order that was only accessible via the Church. This was in order to create a politicized state religion to revitalise the crumbling empire and to defuse the growing mystic revolution that was under way.

However the pseudo-religion outlived the empire and evolved into a totalitarian regime, which over centuries further misconstrued the teachings and fabricated a vast and elaborate propaganda front. Like all such regimes it sought to dominate all aspects of the lives of 'its' people, by insinuating itself into presiding over all births, marriages, deaths, traditions, taboos, laws and over all questions of right and wrong, real and unreal and so on. It became a total institution supported by an intricate web of lies, conditioning, oppression and persecution. Throughout this time all real contact with reality was ruthlessly suppressed and anyone stepping outside the regime's norms was vilified, imprisoned, tortured and/or killed in gruesome ways as a deterrent.

The confounding of mysticism and totalitarian politics led to great confusion, with a very small number still managing to gain minimal connection with reality (in supposedly authorised ways) and being used as trophies by the regime. The corrupt propaganda deceived virtually all people of goodwill, who were used as a PR front for the regime. There were numerous attempted reformations of the teachings by various people of goodwill, but they were too deeply conditioned to be able to see beyond the corrupt propaganda discourse. These splinter groups unwittingly explored all kinds of naïve realist fantasies in an attempt to find a way out of the grip of the regime's delusions.

Due to the total disconnection from reality this regime eventually began to crumble under the weight of its own delusions and the consequences of these delusions. This left the European collective consciousness in a deeply traumatised state and deeply embittered toward anything that resembled the corrupt propaganda of the regime. People sought to break free of the past tyranny and create a new social order that would prevent this kind of devastating oppression from ever occurring again. These people rejected the fictional supernatural order but they were unwittingly still deeply trapped within the regime's naïve realist, materialist propaganda discourse. Centuries of suppression of non-naive realist mystic traditions and the full spectrum conditioning into a naïve realist world view left the Western psyche unable to conceive of anything that was not profoundly naïve realist.

Hence mysticism was still seen through the lens of the regime's propaganda and could not be recognised for what it actually is (a non-naive realist science of metacognition that leads to self-knowledge, self-mastery and genuine liberation from delusion). People could not discern the difference between genuine mysticism and corrupt politicized religion hence they rejected all such things.

Empiricism

It is within this highly charged political struggle that empiricism arose as a counter movement to the previous propaganda discourse. The previous regime had disseminated its propaganda under the guise of divine revelation and so natural philosophers immediately rejected the possibility of any knowledge that did not arise directly from sense perceptions. As an unconsciously political manoeuvre they declared that all “a priori” knowledge (prior to sense experience) was impossible and that only “a posteriori” knowledge (after sense experience) was possible. However this claim had no real basis in experience and was unwittingly accepted as an “a priori” fact.

This insistence that the objects of the senses are real and indeed the only things that are real, is a deeply naïve realist assumption that denies even the consciousness by which we become aware of these objects. Due to the political climate it was impossible for anyone to question this assumption in a rational manner and even today it goes mostly unchallenged and is unquestioningly accepted by and espoused to the masses of all modern cultures.

In this manner empiricism began as a counter propaganda movement that rapidly formed into a new regime that sought to impose its ideology into all aspects of the human condition. This early form of empiricism is now called naïve empiricism because the propaganda front has matured and become much more subtle.

Empirical Science

Empiricism forms the foundation of all empirical science. Because of this naïve realist foundation the scope of empirical science is fundamentally limited. Let me explain with an example.

Say that in my perceptual field I experience some object. I can describe this object and characterise its form and behaviour using theories and mathematical models but these simply describe the object of perception. Given that the enquiry began with the naïve realist assumption that the object is a real external, material object I would naturally believe that the theories and equations accurately describe everything that there is to know about the object. A naïve realist is generally unable to recognise that they are a naïve realist because they firmly believe that what they experience is just the obvious facts of reality and they do not question these facts.

Although the theories and equations of empirical science are accurate characterisations of our naïve sense experiences they can ONLY characterise phenomena within the mind and not the actual ontology of the situation. Hence empirical science is purely phenomenological and can only make accurate statements about phenomena as they appear to the mind. Whenever an empirical scientist makes ontological statements and declares that the object is 'real' and even that these objects are the only things that are real, then they are over-reaching the scope of empirical science and engaging in naïve realist fantasy. This results in Scientism, which is a form of pseudo-scientific religion that seeks to impose its ideology upon peoples minds. This is zealously imposed out of historical fear that fictional supernatural fantasies will once again take power.

Whilst empirical science is a powerful and accurate tool within its own scope it must be subordinated to rationalism, which is the converse of empiricism. Rationalism proposes that there are things that can be known without the agency of sense perception. It has grown in acceptance slowly through the agency of quantum physics. Quantum physicists operated within an empiricist context, but also gave great weight to mathematical formalisms, which are entirely rationalist and non-empiricist. The fact that quantum physics is the most accurate science developed so far has protected it from outright dismissal but for nearly a century empiricists have taken the attitude of using the mathematics without ascribing any reality to the formalisms. Hence they assumed that because quantum physics contradicts their naïve realist beliefs that it simply could not be true and was just a mathematical trick that happened to somehow magically gives answers to tens of decimal places of accuracy. The properties of simple 'physical' systems such as the mass of an electron can even be calculated “ab initio” (from purely theoretical principles without any resort to empirical data). The culture of denial has gradually been eroded and in recent years quantum physicists are becoming increasingly convinced and thereby courageous enough to speak against the prevailing propaganda and thereby risk the scorn of their peers.

However the continuance of the previous pseudo-Christian regime (currently in the form of the Intelligent Design movement) has preserved the historical antagonism and has pushed Scientism into an entrenched position. This strengthens the empiricist pseudo-scientific regime. Furthermore, empiricism, positivism, naïve realism, materialism, capitalism, nationalism, corporatism and countless other cultural phenomena have merged into a global totalitarian regime that is just as oppressive as the pseudo-religious regime and on a fundamental level is equally disconnected from reality. However material successes have given the current regime immense power and self-righteous zeal that has led it to indoctrinate whole populations and to drive the planet to the brink of a global systemic collapse.

Unified Science

To avoid the inevitable spiral into naïve realist fantasies that is confounded for reality, and annihilation from the ramifications of these delusions, we need to recognise that empirical science is not the paragon of perfect reason and scepticism that its propaganda leads people to believe. If it is to become genuinely rational and sceptical it must re-examine its roots and its fundamental axioms. It has historical roots, political motivations, collectively unconscious defence mechanisms and the legacy of many centuries of indoctrination and conditioning from the prior pseudo-religious regime. These need to be brought to light and rectified.

In order to get out of their bind scientists must recognise that reality doesn't simply appear in their minds and that the level of consciousness that they have will determine the type of reality that they conceive of. In order to have a clear view of reality they must clarify their minds through inner work and not just through absorbing more culturally constructed knowledge. Science must take quantum physics seriously and must also overcome its conditioned attitude of contempt for mysticism. Because mystics in all cultures and all ages have developed ways to clarify their minds, to raise their consciousness beyond the level of naïve realism and to engage with reality, as weird as it may seem, rather than with comfortable, culturally clichéd fantasies.

Empiricism liberated us from the fictional supernatural order of pseudo-religion but it heaped fuel on the fire of naïve realism leading to destructive egoism and authoritarianism. If we as a species and a planet are to survive we must untie this knot in our collective consciousness. Empirical science has exhaustively explored the world of sense perceptions but 'science' must become truly sceptical about its empiricist roots and it must engage with mystics to explore the inner dimension of consciousness. Only when science and mysticism are genuinely unified can we have a unified science that will provide a sustainable foundation for civilisation.

The scientific case against materialism.

Articles on naïve realism.

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