u/Confident_Cover_2661

I’ve been trying to formalize a personal philosophical framework and I’d like serious critique from people who know philosophy of science / epistemology better than I do.

The rough label I’d give it is “Mechanistic Naturalism” or “Mechanism-First Epistemology.”

Core idea:

Reality is governed by discoverable causal mechanisms independent of belief, preference, or narrative. Explanations should be judged primarily by mechanistic clarity, predictive power, and empirical contact rather than emotional satisfaction, authority, or metaphysical comfort.

I hold a mix of ontological naturalism + methodological naturalism, but with what I’d call a spiritual orientation toward truth-seeking. By that I mean spirituality is not belief without evidence, but disciplined alignment with reality: humility, integrity, willingness to revise beliefs, reverence for existence, and moral seriousness in perception and conduct.

Some core principles:

- Mystery is not evidence.

- Ignorance is not proof of supernatural explanation.

- Confidence should be proportional to mechanistic understanding and empirical validation.

- Explanations without causal structure are narratives, not understanding.

- Outcomes are usually products of interacting systems, constraints, and feedback loops rather than isolated causes.

- Truth is correspondence with reality, not consensus or comfort.

I’m especially interested in the idea of “mechanism supremacy” — the habit of asking “by what mechanism?” rather than accepting explanation at the level of story.

At the same time, I don’t want this to collapse into shallow reductionism or scientism. I’m not arguing that all human experience is reducible to simplistic material explanation, only that confidence should scale with explanatory power and reality-contact.

Questions:

1. Is there already a better formal name for this position in philosophy?

2. Is this basically just naturalized epistemology / scientific realism / pragmatism with different branding?

3. Where are the strongest critiques of this view?

4. What major philosophers or traditions should I read if I want to sharpen or challenge this framework?

I’d rather be corrected than affirmed, so I’m looking for strong criticism, not agreement.

I have a gastroenterologist appointment coming up in a few days, and I realized I’m spending more energy trying to organize my medical history than actually preparing for the visit.

For years I’ve been dealing with persistent GI issues, early satiety, pain, tachycardia, repeated testing, normal scans, and still no clear answer. CT normal. Endoscopy normal. H. pylori negative. Symptoms are still there every day.

Before this appointment, I’m digging through old lab reports, CT results, endoscopy reports, doctor notes, WhatsApp messages, and trying to remember the exact timeline of symptoms, what got worse when, what tests were done, and what has already been ruled out.

That made me realize the hardest part of chronic illness often isn’t just the symptoms. It’s managing the diagnostic journey itself.

Explaining the same story to different doctors. Forgetting important details during appointments. Losing reports. Repeating tests. Waiting months between visits only to feel like no real progress was made.

That frustration made me realize most health apps focus on fitness, calories, or general wellness, but not on helping people with unresolved chronic symptoms actually move closer to answers.

So I’m thinking about building something for this.

A diagnostic command center for chronic illness patients.

It would help with secure medical record storage, symptom timelines, biomarker tracking, specialist appointment prep, and clear summaries that help doctors understand your case quickly.

The goal is simple:

This helped me finally get answers.

I’m building it because I need it for my own upcoming appointment first.

If you’ve been through a long diagnostic journey, would something like this actually help you?

What part of the process frustrates you the most?

I have a gastroenterologist appointment coming up in a few days, and I realized I’m spending more energy trying to organize my medical history than actually preparing for the visit.

For years I’ve been dealing with persistent GI issues, early satiety, pain, tachycardia, repeated testing, normal scans, and still no clear answer. CT normal. Endoscopy normal. H. pylori negative. Symptoms are still there every day.

Before this appointment, I’m digging through old lab reports, CT results, endoscopy reports, doctor notes, WhatsApp messages, and trying to remember the exact timeline of symptoms, what got worse when, what tests were done, and what has already been ruled out.

That made me realize the hardest part of chronic illness often isn’t just the symptoms. It’s managing the diagnostic journey itself.

Explaining the same story to different doctors. Forgetting important details during appointments. Losing reports. Repeating tests. Waiting months between visits only to feel like no real progress was made.

That frustration made me realize most health apps focus on fitness, calories, or general wellness, but not on helping people with unresolved chronic symptoms actually move closer to answers.

So I’m thinking about building something for this.

A diagnostic command center for chronic illness patients.

It would help with secure medical record storage, symptom timelines, biomarker tracking, specialist appointment prep, and clear summaries that help doctors understand your case quickly.

The goal is simple:

This helped me finally get answers.

I’m building it because I need it for my own upcoming appointment first.

If you’ve been through a long diagnostic journey, would something like this actually help you?

What part of the process frustrates you the most?

I have a gastroenterologist appointment coming up in a few days, and I realized I’m spending more energy trying to organize my medical history than actually preparing for the visit.

For years I’ve been dealing with persistent GI issues, early satiety, pain, tachycardia, repeated testing, normal scans, and still no clear answer. CT normal. Endoscopy normal. H. pylori negative. Symptoms are still there every day.

Before this appointment, I’m digging through old lab reports, CT results, endoscopy reports, doctor notes, WhatsApp messages, and trying to remember the exact timeline of symptoms, what got worse when, what tests were done, and what has already been ruled out.

That made me realize the hardest part of chronic illness often isn’t just the symptoms. It’s managing the diagnostic journey itself.

Explaining the same story to different doctors. Forgetting important details during appointments. Losing reports. Repeating tests. Waiting months between visits only to feel like no real progress was made.

That frustration made me realize most health apps focus on fitness, calories, or general wellness, but not on helping people with unresolved chronic symptoms actually move closer to answers.

So I’m thinking about building something for this.

A diagnostic command center for chronic illness patients.

It would help with secure medical record storage, symptom timelines, biomarker tracking, specialist appointment prep, and clear summaries that help doctors understand your case quickly.

The goal is simple:

This helped me finally get answers.

I’m building it because I need it for my own upcoming appointment first.

If you’ve been through a long diagnostic journey, would something like this actually help you?

What part of the process frustrates you the most?

I have a gastroenterologist appointment coming up in a few days, and I realized I’m spending more energy trying to organize my medical history than actually preparing for the visit.

For years I’ve been dealing with persistent GI issues, early satiety, pain, tachycardia, repeated testing, normal scans, and still no clear answer. CT normal. Endoscopy normal. H. pylori negative. Symptoms are still there every day.

Before this appointment, I’m digging through old lab reports, CT results, endoscopy reports, doctor notes, WhatsApp messages, and trying to remember the exact timeline of symptoms, what got worse when, what tests were done, and what has already been ruled out.

That made me realize the hardest part of chronic illness often isn’t just the symptoms. It’s managing the diagnostic journey itself.

Explaining the same story to different doctors. Forgetting important details during appointments. Losing reports. Repeating tests. Waiting months between visits only to feel like no real progress was made.

That frustration made me realize most health apps focus on fitness, calories, or general wellness, but not on helping people with unresolved chronic symptoms actually move closer to answers.

So I’m thinking about building something for this.

A diagnostic command center for chronic illness patients.

It would help with secure medical record storage, symptom timelines, biomarker tracking, specialist appointment prep, and clear summaries that help doctors understand your case quickly.

The goal is simple:

This helped me finally get answers.

I’m building it because I need it for my own upcoming appointment first.

If you’ve been through a long diagnostic journey, would something like this actually help you?

What part of the process frustrates you the most?