Part 1: How Do We Properly Integrate Marxist Epistemology?

Marxism, also known as “dialectical materialism”, continues to exert a tremendous influence in our society, both in terms of pro-Marxist ideas on the left and anti-Marxist positions on the right.

One of the simplest ways to define Marxist epistemology is the following statement: “Examine any alleged state of affairs as related to and distinguished from a total environment, and you will know whether or not the sentence alleging that state of affairs is true.”

What are the positive contributions of Marxism that we want to include in a more integral epistemology? What are the unhealthy or negative limitations that we want to avoid?

Part 2: How Do We Know Spiritual Experiences Transcend the Flesh?

How can we claim that spiritual realities have real ontological existence “out there”, based on our own phenomenological experiences “in here”? How do we discern whether something like subtle “realms” or the Absolute itself actually exist, based on data collected from our own zone-1 state experiences, versus something like “unicorns”? How can we be sure that these spiritual states are not mere bio-chemical hallucinations caused by activating certain parts of our nervous system?

Part 3: The Two Truths: Epistemology or Ontology?

Is the Two Truths doctrine best understood as an epistemological claim, as I believe it was for Nagarjuna, or is it an ontological claim, as it is understood to be in Chinese Buddhism?

Part 4: Where Does Math Come From?

What exactly is math, anyway? Does it exist independently of the mind, or are mathematics generated by mind? Does the square root of negative 2 actually exist objectively in the “real world” out there, or is it an epistemological feature of our sense-making “in here”?

Part 5: How Do We Navigate Our Epistemic Crisis?

We currently live in a completely un-curated world of social media, where each of us individually are responsible for our own informational terrain. This is largely the result of existing on flat postmodern media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. that have themselves not only failed to sustain any sort of sane postmodern discourse, but also incentivized a massive regression back to magenta tribalism, red narcissism, and amber ethnocentrism.

It’s a total epistemic collapse. This is the aperspectival madness that Ken has been warning us about for decades, and it is what we are all immersed in today, whether we know it or not — where things like QAnon conspiracies rule the day and leftist SJW’s begin to support ideas like racial segregation.

What is an integralist to do? How can we ensure that we are responsibly maintaining our own informational terrain and keeping a careful eye on our own confirmation biases, while helping others do the same? If we notice that our friends and family are basing their views on broken epistemologies and unfalsifiable narratives (something we even see in “integral” circles!), what are some skillful ways we can help guide each other back to reality?