The article is an extrapolation of the methodological principles of D. Dennett’s heterophenomenology to epistemological problems concerning the limits of human cognition. Scientific novelty of the research. Heterophenomenology provides a holistic vision of both the cognitive process and the cognizing subject. Since any events of reality can be transformed into speech acts, they thereby become knowledge about reality, a set of data. It is enough for the researcher to compile a catalogue of what is considered true in the context of a particular cognitive experience, using the intentional, projective or causal method of interpretation. Heterophenomenology is a principle of data organization. Methods. The article considers two ultimate questions: “Are there types of knowledge that are not available to humans?” and “Does the quality of human reasoning change?” The answer to the first question presupposes the presence of information that is understandable to us, but which is impossible to obtain. The answer to the second question concerns information that we can obtain, but which we will not be able to understand. The position of heterophenomenology points to a way out of the impasse, proposing to focus on the following question: what are the compelling scientific grounds for asserting or believing in something? Regarding the answer to this question in relation to the limits of knowledge (the article focuses mainly on the problems of the origin of life and the origin of consciousness) we propose a pessimistic and optimistic position. Results. Epistemological pessimism exposes the intentional attitude of the reverse perspective, when the interpretation of data is given in connection with the expected possibilities and successful experience of what has already been achieved. Epistemological optimism consists in the study of thoughts, abstracting from their habitat, when thoughts think themselves. Without destroying existing hierarchies, it is possible to create an updated map of the infinite complexity of being each time. Thus, the neutrality of heterophenomenological methodology expands the possibilities of philosophical work with the ultimate questions of human knowledge.
