Abstract

From an investigation of the theoretical, structural, methodological, and conceptual rudiments of the neurophenomenology, such as developed by Francisco Javier Varela, I seek, at first, to investigate the possibility of a theoretical model whose purpose consists in the integration between the subjective experience and the cerebral dynamic. To the study of the fundamental diagnosis of neurophenomenology — namely, the interpretation which Varela offers to the theoretical and methodological position of Chalmers’ ‘hard problem’ of consciousness —, I will associate the conception of downward determination I borrow from the emergentism. My intention is to demonstrate that the notion of downward determination — as exemplified in meditative practice — can greatly contribute to the consolidation of a theoretical perspective for the problem of mind-body-life relations which is beyond the theoretical, structural, methodological and conceptual implications of the highly acclaimed ‘explanatory gap’. From my belief that meditation brings with it the possibility of filling the mind-body gap on a phenomenological level, I proceed to investigate the elements through which Buddhism and phenomenology can mutually benefit the sciences cognitive; in this sense, I am not presupposing the limitations, but rather the possibilities and the scope of the introspective method, as Varela has previously done in his neurophenomenology.