Integral Thought
February 19, 2007Nick just sent me a note pointing me to a wikipedia entry on Integral Thought. He thought that maybe it fits in with my generalist thinking a little. From the text:
“The word integral means comprehensive, inclusive, nonmarginalizing, embracing. Integral approaches to any field attempt to be exactly that—to include as many perspectives, styles, and methodologies as possible within a coherent view of the topic. In a certain sense, integral approaches are “meta-paradigms,” or ways to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of approaches that are mutually enriching.”
Sounds like he’s right on the money!
And talk about syncronicity. Tony and I were only just discussing the other day the God v. Science and Creationists v. Rationalists meme that seems to be going around at the moment.
I don’t want to weigh in on this one, but perhaps a view that seeks a comprehensive understanding of humans and the universe by combining scientific and spiritual insights is a worthy opponent (alternative) in this debate?
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I think it is pretty naive to proceed in simply adding a ’spiritual’ dimension to the ’scientific’ one – as is being done in ‘integral theory’, and as even Ken Wilber does, merely in a rather clever way) –, because in this way one does not overcome the basic gesture of talking about the subject matter (formulating predicates about it) without becoming aware of one’s own activities and the categorial instrumentation in doing so. For example Wilber merely cuts up the description into four quadrants. The big joke is that he believes to “break away from metaphysics to develop a theory of spiritual evolution that is acceptable to the modern secular world” (Wikipedia). As if his basic assumptions were not of metaphysical character (even if they do not have the same content as implied in traditional metaphysics). As even Derrida had to acknowledge, no critique of metaphysics is possible without doing metaphysics oneself. Not being aware of this activity is quite a different point.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I have not so far seen physicist and author Fritjof Capra figure in the lists of ‘integral thinkers’.
But in his book ‘The Hidden Connections’he offers a multi-dimensional framework of his own which he thinks can adequately express most problems of human interest. The method can be considered ‘integral’ in many respects. A summary and review of the book are present at http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/499
An excerpt:
“All of our experience is embodied; we cannot transcend our bodies. The characteristics that we perceive in the world, such as color, are merely a result of the interaction between mind and environment. The things that we perceive do not necessarily exist independent of us. Our cognitive abilities evolved to become more and more complex along with corresponding changes in biological structures: matter and life are unified, not separate. All of this serves to bolster the view that process and structure are connected on all levels of life. Capra goes on to talk about our social reality and the four dimensions that are important to them: meaning, process, form and matter. “