The Long March to a New Knowledge Space: Constructing a Critical Complex Epistemology

Recognizing this “in-between,” this non-material consciousness-produced connective “tissue” changes the world. The “true reality” of Western waking consciousness that all contemporary Westerners have been acculturated to see (and see exclusively) is merely one dimension of the multiple realities perceived by diverse cultures and peoples in different times and places. Thus, the more we know about such cultures and times, the more we can sense about the world around us, the more we can imagine different ways of being both at an individual and social level. Again, I am profoundly excited by this trek into an evolving consciousness, the pluriverse, a world where dominant power is challenged, an education more exciting than any theme park ride, and a critical complex epistemology. The socio-pedagogical ride I’m describing involves more than an exploration of our consciousness—although this is a key part of it; it entails more than being involved in a political movement to end human oppression and suffering—although this is a central dimension of it. It involves both a journey inward and a journey outward. It cannot exist without the synergy of both tasks, as they are brought together conceptually by the critical complex epistemology and operationalized in an evolving critical pedagogy.

Thus, a critical complex epistemology blasts open the windows of awareness that had been nailed shut by FIDUROD and the positivist tradition. As we open the window, we might gain the ability to envision consciousness, for example, as a liquid concept that contains within it spatial and temporal features. Imagine that as we perceive something we bathe it with such a fluid that then flows to other entities connecting them to one another and to our minds. Indeed, such a liquid consciousness flows from one individual to another in both the contemporary world and through time to individuals long deceased who have left various artifacts including the objects they created, their writings, and audio and visual recordings. As the fluid of consciousness flows over these individuals and their artifacts, its contents grow richer, packed with ingredients that blend together like spices in a rare cuisine.