Intersubjective Validation

Intersubjective validation is the process in which an individual's experience is confirmed or recognized by another(s) in such a way that a shared understanding of the lived reality is established. 


In other words, it is the recognition and acceptance of someone's experience by another person, considering that both share a common foundation to perceive the world and their experiences. 


In the context of phenomenology, for example, intersubjective validation involves a process of communication and agreement between the phenomenologist and their peers.


In this process, the described experience is recognized and confirmed as valid by other researchers, promoting an exchange of understandings that goes beyond the individual perspective.


In an interview broadcast on YouTube (link), the theoretical physicist and philosopher Michel Bitbol said something interesting.


It was something I had already noticed when I informally guided a few people to try to perceive what I had perceived in my experience of attention.


Upon perceiving it themselves, they had a "eureka" expression—simultaneously accompanied by the sense that the perception had always been obvious, even though it had never been noticed before—and described it in a way similar to mine.


Here is the transcription of Bitbol’s statement (min. 24:51):

"Now, how do you validate these verbal descriptions of your lived experience or, at least, these verbal descriptions of the invariance of your lived experience?


It’s just by a very simple process that appeals exactly to what you say: intersubjectivity. When you read Husserl, you have two possible feelings. 


Either you understand nothing (this is the case for many people, I must say), or the exact opposite: you read Husserl and suddenly have the amazing feeling that this guy has penetrated within your skull. 


He knows what you are experiencing, what you are feeling here and now. And when you realize how much he understood and described what you are living at this very moment, you know he is right. 


You recognize the validity of his descriptions by the fact that you have exactly what he describes, that his descriptions are perfectly adequate to describe what you are living at this very moment.


This is, you know, a criterion that I could call the mutual recognition of lived experience as described by words.


When a teacher of meditation sometimes describes, say, a certain state that you can reach through meditation (they don’t do this usually, but when they do), and suddenly you experience what they are describing, you know they were right. 


You say, "Oh, aha! Now I know what he means" or "What she means."


Okay, and this is exactly the same in phenomenology. You suddenly know that this person has understood what you are living.


Conversely, when you yourself try to describe something to someone, what you wish and hope for is that someone will recognize, in their own experience, what you have described. 


And in this case, you know that the validity of this description is confirmed."

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