Vol.:(0123456789) Foundations of Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-019-09638-z 1 3 Towards the Epistemology of the Non‑trivial: Research Characteristics Connecting Quantum Mechanics and First‑Person Inquiry Urban Kordeš 1  · Ema Demšar 1 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract The present article discusses shared epistemological characteristics of two distinct areas of research: the feld of frst-person inquiry and the feld of quantum mechanics. We out- line certain philosophical challenges that arise in each of the two lines of inquiry, and point towards the central similarity of their observational situation: the impossibility of disregarding the interrelatedness of the observed phenomena with the act of observation. We argue that this observational feature delineates a specifc category of research that we call the non-trivial domain. Unlike the trivial domain, non-trivial research cannot assume the view from nowhere on which the observed phenomena could be regarded as existing independently of the process of observation. Presenting frst-person inquiry and quantum mechanics as two of its examples, we show that non-trivial research violates several fun- damental observational presuppositions of the trivial domain, exemplifed in the principles of classical physics. Drawing on Niels Bohr’s philosophy of quantum mechanics and the constructivist notion of enaction, we stress the constructive, participatory, and irreversible nature of observation in the non-trivial domain. We discuss the possibility of developing a non-representationalist epistemology of the non-trivial, and consider the implications of our discussion for research in the non-trivial domain, as well as for the general understand- ing of the scientifc inquiry. Keywords Non-trivial research · First-person research · Quantum mechanics · Niels Bohr · Enaction · Constructivism * Urban Kordeš urban.kordes@pef.uni-lj.si Ema Demšar ema.demsar@pef.uni-lj.si 1 Center for Cognitive Science, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia