Abstract

The purpose of the researcher is to produce an interpretation of the epistemology of Carlos Castaneda by use of a comparison with selected epistemologies, and analysis of the dialogues between Castaneda and don Juan to extract a Castanedian epistemology. ;Sub-problems: To trace the development of Castaneda's epistemology through the first four volumes. To compare Castaneda's epistemology to other epistemological systems. To produce a clarification of Castaneda's epistemology in dialogue form, which will incorporate the data derived in Sub-problems One and Two. ;The study is divided into three sections. The first section, Chapters One and Two, develop an historical context for Castaneda's style of epistemological inquiry. This section relies heavily upon the work of Martin Heidegger and his call for a new kind of thinking that goes beyond the rational. Castaneda's work is represented as a response to that call. ;The second section, Chapters Three through Six, extracts Castaneda's epistemological system from the record of the apprenticeship of Carlos. This system, once extracted and interpreted, is then compared to four other systems of knowledge, Quantum Mechanics, Buddhism, A. N. Whitehead, and the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. These comparisons point out similarities and differences between Castaneda and the other inquiries. The purpose is to discover through the differences the original nature of some elements of Castaneda's work. ;The third section, Chapters seven through eleven, takes some of the system of exercises, discipline and epistemological insights of Castaneda and recasts them into a dialogue created by the researcher. The don Juanian development of non-ordinary reality is translated into a form that excludes the dependence upon extra-ordinary events and instead, seeks out non-ordinary reality in simple everyday occurrences. This way of "seeing" is then put into action within the concreteness of an ordinary occupational identity. ;The study finds there are many similarities to other systems of knowledge that lend weight to the respectability of Castaneda's work. Also, there are elements of his work that have an original development and grant his system significance. Chief among these are: the development of the internal dialogue and the importance of controlling it, the placement of ordinary reality into non-ordinary reality, the uses of controlled folly and the accessibility of his system within the perceptions of an ordinary life