What Can Be Other? The Role of Experience in Philosophy
RUDN Journal of Philosophy January 9, 2025 Elena V. Kosilova
This paper examines how experience enters into philosophical reasoning, arguing that while philosophical statements claim universal validity, experience—understood narrowly as sensory input or broadly to include the experience of thinking—plays a crucial role. The author explores examples from the philosophy of music, neurophenomenology, psychopathology, and existential philosophy, where metaphysical claims are made on the basis of experiential data. The hypothesis proposed is that metaphysical judgments follow only from other metaphysical judgments, with experience serving as a filter rather than a source. The distinction between experiential truths and normative, extra-experiential truths remains an open question.