Ken Wilber

Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. (born January 31, 1949, Oklahoma City, USA) is an American philosopher and mystic. His work focuses mainly on creating an "integral theory of consciousness" in which the insights of mysticism, postmodernism, science and systems theory come together to form a coherent picture of the Kosmos. In Kosmic Consciousness, Wilber states that he considers himself a storyteller and a mapmaker; his stories address universal questions and his maps integrate various perspectives of the cosmos.

Ideas

The neo-perennial philosophy

One of Wilber's major theoretical accomplishments has been to create what he calls the neo-perennial philosophy, an integration of traditional mysticism (typified by Aldous Huxley's perennial philosophy) with an account of cosmic evolution that is in many respects compatible with that of the great Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo. As a Buddhist, he believes that reality is ultimately a nondual union of Emptiness and Form, with Form being innately subject to development over time. Wilber's voluminous writings are ultimately attempts to describe how Form undergoes change, and how sentient beings in the world of Form participate in this change until they finally realise their true identity as Emptiness.

Related Topics:
Aldous Huxley - Perennial philosophy - Evolution - Sri Aurobindo - Nondual

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The Croatian esoteric philosopher Arvan Harvat has alleged that attempting to integrate a thoroughly nondual approach like Zen with an evolutionary view is ultimately impossible: if your model includes absolutely everything, how can it change? Wilber's response is that it is only Form that evolves; Emptiness remains unchanged. Trans-conceptually, one can embrace one's own transrational (and hence ultimately ineffable) experience-awareness, and this is what constitutes true nondual enlightenment.

Related Topics:
Croatia - Esoteric - Arvan Harvat - Zen - Form - Emptiness

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Others argue that this is a confusion between concepts of differentiated nondualist doctrines (such as Plotinus's Neo-Platonism and Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita Vedanta) and truly unitary monism of Zen and Advaita Vedanta: the former philosophies distinguish betwen emanated or manifest reality and the unchangeable source, while for Zen or Advaita the Source and reality are essentially one and the same, as expressed in the famous Zen saying: "Nirvana is Samsara fully realized; Samsara is Nirvana rightly understood."

Related Topics:
Nondualist - Plotinus - Neo-Platonism - Ramanuja - Vishishtadvaita - Vedanta - Zen - Advaita - Nirvana - Samsara

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It could also be argued that Wilber's neo-perennial philosophy (in which Form evolves while Emptiness remains unchanged) might be better suited to a differentiated monist or emanationist metaphysics than to that of unqualified nondualism.

Related Topics:
Monist - Emanationist - Metaphysics

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Holons and the twenty tenets

A key idea in Wilber's philosophical approach is the idea of a holon. In considering what might be the basic building blocks of existence, he observed that it seems every entity and concept shares a dual nature: as a whole in itself, and as a part of some other thing. For example, although you are made of parts (your nervous system, your skeletal system, etc.), you are also a part of your society, and of your nation-state. A letter is a self-existing entity and simultaneously an integral part of a word. Everything from quarks to matter to energy to ideas can be looked at in this way — everything in creation except perhaps creation itself is a holon.

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In his book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Wilber outlines approximately twenty tenets http://www.integralworld.net/20tenets.html that characterize all holons. These tenets form the basis of Wilber's model of manifest reality.

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Beyond this, Wilber's view is that the totality of manifest reality itself is just a wave on the ocean of the unmanifest, of Emptiness itself, which is not a holon.

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AQAL

AQAL (pronounced aqual or ah-qwul) represents the core of Wilber's recent work. AQAL stands for All Quadrants All Levels, but equally connotes 'all lines', 'all states' and 'all types'. These are the five irreducible categories of Wilber's model of manifest existence. In order for an account of the Kosmos to be complete (in the light of contemporary developmental studies), Wilber believes that it must include each of these five categories. For Wilber, only such an account can truly be called "integral." In the essay, "Excerpt C: The Ways We Are in This Together", Wilber calls AQAL "One suggested architecture of the Kosmos". http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm

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The two truths doctrine

Wilber accepts the two truths doctrine of Buddhism. It maintains that, to avoid philosophical confusion (or "category collapse"), we must clearly distinguish between the absolute truth of Emptiness and the relative truths of Form. All of Wilber's AQAL categories — quadrants, lines, levels, states, and types—relate to relative truth. None of them are true in an absolute sense. Only formless awareness, "the simple feeling of being," exists absolutely. Wilber follows Aurobindo (and Hegel) in calling this formless awareness "Spirit". Wilber's "Spirit" is conceptually equivalent to Plotinus' One, to Schelling's Absolute, to the Hindu Brahman, and to the Shunyata of Buddhism.

Related Topics:
Two truths doctrine - Buddhism - Quadrants - Lines - Levels - States - Types - Aurobindo - Hegel - Plotinus - Schelling - Hindu - Brahman - Shunyata

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The pre/trans fallacy

The pre/trans fallacy is one of Wilber's more famous ideas. Its basic tenet is that because the early, pre-rational stages of consciousness and the latter, transrational stages of consciousness are both non-rational, they can easily be confused with each other. In perhaps the most well known example of the fallacy, Freud considered mystical realizations to be regressions to infantile oceanic states. Carl Jung committed the opposite mistake by considering pre-rational myths to reflect divine realizations. Likewise, many consider pre-rational states like tribalism or mythic religion to be post-rational. Thus the two-fold nature of the fallacy: one can reduce trans-rational spiritual realization to pre-rational regression, or one can elevate pre-rational states to the trans-rational domain.

Related Topics:
Freud - Carl Jung

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Interestingly, Wilber characterizes his early work as falling victim to the pre/trans fallacy (see Wilber's five phases).

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Wilber on science

In his book The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion, Wilber characterizes the current state of the "hard" sciences as "narrow science." He claims that the natural sciences currently only allow evidence from the lowest realm of consciousness, the sensorimotor (the five senses and their extensions).

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What he calls "broad science" would include evidence from logic, mathematics, and from the symbolic, hermeneutical, and other realms of consciousness. Ultimately and ideally, broad science would include the testimony of meditators and spiritual practitioners.

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Wilber's own conception of science includes both narrow science and broad science. His example is using EKG machines and other technologies to test the experiences of meditators and other spiritual practitioners. This would be an example of what Wilber calls "integral science".

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According to Wilber's theory, narrow science trumps narrow religion, but broad science trumps narrow science. That is, the natural sciences provide a more inclusive and accurate account of reality than any of the particular exoteric religious traditions. But an integral approach that evaluates both religious claims and scientific claims based on intersubjectivity is preferable to narrow science.

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Wilber on Darwinism

Wilber rejects creationism as the claims of narrow religion disingenuously disguised as science. However, he also doesn't subscribe to the philosophically naturalistic evolutionary theory of, for example, Richard Dawkins, who Wilber describes as a "religious preacher". Although Wilber sees natural selection as a valid (if limited) scientific theory, he sees Darwin as having had a largely negative net intellectual influence — due to the success of Darwinism, the holistic, ontologically evolutionary views of German Idealism were effectively replaced with physicalism among the intellectual élite.

Related Topics:
Creationism - Philosophically naturalistic - Richard Dawkins - Natural selection - Darwin - Darwinism - German Idealism - Physicalism

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Wilber agrees with Intelligent Design theorists that Neo-Darwinism fails to adequately explain the origin of life, sentience, and human consciousness. But he rejects Intelligent Design theorists' embrace of a dualistic creator deity as the solution to these problems. In a posting on an internet forum run by his organization, he both confirmed his support of the scientific method and simultaneously charged hardcore Neo-Darwinists with bad faith of almost schizophrenic proportions (the ellipsis is Wilber's):

Related Topics:
Intelligent Design - Neo-Darwinism - Life - Sentience - Dualistic - Scientific method - Bad faith

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If physicalistic, materialistic, reductionistic forces turn out to give an adequate explanation to the extraordinary diversity of evolutionary unfolding, then fine, that is what we will include in integral theory. And if not, not. But so far, the "nots" have it by a staggeringly huge margin, and scientists when they are not bragging to the world, whisper this to themselves every single day of their lives. I know, I lived in that community for the better part of a decade. And it's truly fascinating, to say the least...

Related Topics:
Physicalistic - Materialistic - Reductionistic

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Recently, Wilber has been using the term "tetra-evolution" to refer to the four-dimensional development of holons. This refers to the four quadrants of integral theory (interior individual, exterior individual, interior plural, and exterior plural), which Wilber believes co-evolve.

Related Topics:
Holons - Quadrants

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New work

In 2005, at the launch of the Integral Spiritual Center, a branch of the Integral Institute, Wilber presented a 118 page rough draft summary of his two forthcoming books (1.3 MB .pdf file). The essay is entitled "What is Integral Spirituality?", and contains several new ideas: Integral methodological pluralism, Integral post-metaphysics, Integral math, and the Wilber-Combs lattice.

Related Topics:
Integral Spiritual Center - Integral Institute - Integral methodological pluralism - Integral post-metaphysics - Integral math

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Wilber connects his various frameworks in the following quotation:

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That is our goal: to "reverse engineer" an explanatory framework that plausibly accounts for all of those major methodologies--from phenomenology to autopoiesis to systems theory to hermeneutics — by "transcendentally deducing" a structure of the Kosmos that would allow those methodologies to arise and exist in the first place, because already exist they do. The suggested explanatory framework is called AQAL; its orientation is an integral overview of indigenous perspectives; its social practice is an Integral methodological pluralism; its philosophy is Integral post-metaphysics; its signaling network is IOS (Integral Operating System) — all third-person words for a view of the Kosmos in which first persons and second persons are irreducible agents, bearers of sentience and intentionality and feeling, not merely matter and energy and information and causality. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm/

Related Topics:
Methodologies - Phenomenology - Autopoiesis - Systems theory - Hermeneutics - AQAL - Integral methodological pluralism - Integral post-metaphysics - Integral Operating System

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Wilber-Combs lattice

This is a conceptual model of consciousness developed by Wilber and Allan Combs. It is a grid with sequential states of consciousness on the x axis (from right to left) and with levels of consciousness on the y axis (from top to bottom). This lattice illustrates how each level of consciousness interprets different mystical states in different ways. For example, someone at the tribal level of awareness might interpret a subtle realization as a realm filled with magical power, whereas someone at a rational level might interpret it in a more materialistic or scientific way.

Related Topics:
Consciousness - Allan Combs - States - Levels - Tribal - Subtle

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Influences on Wilber

Wilber's conception of the perennial philosophy has been primarily influenced and underpinned by the nondual mysticism of Advaita Vedanta, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Nagarjuna, Plotinus, and Ramana Maharshi. He has been a dedicated practitioner of Buddhist meditation since his college years, and has studied under some of the foremost meditation masters of our time. These include Dainin katagiri, Maezumi Roshi, Chogyam Trungpa, Kalu Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche and Chagdud Rinpoche.

Related Topics:
Advaita Vedanta - Tibetan Buddhism - Zen Buddhism - Nagarjuna - Plotinus - Ramana Maharshi - Dainin katagiri - Maezumi Roshi - Chogyam Trungpa - Kalu Rinpoche - Penor Rinpoche - Chagdud Rinpoche

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Wilber's conception of evolution or psychological development is consistent with that of Aurobindo, Jean Gebser, the Great chain of being, German idealism, Erich Jantsch, Jean Piaget, Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson, Lawrence Kohlberg, Howard Gardner, Clare W. Graves, Robert Kegan and Spiral Dynamics. He considered existential psychologist Rollo May a personal friend.

Related Topics:
Evolution - Aurobindo - Jean Gebser - Great chain of being - German idealism - Erich Jantsch - Jean Piaget - Abraham Maslow - Erik Erikson - Lawrence Kohlberg - Howard Gardner - Clare W. Graves - Robert Kegan - Spiral Dynamics - Existential psychologist - Rollo May

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Wilber has stated on several occasions his admiration for the written works of the American-born guru Adi Da (also known as Da Free John) and his belief in Adi Da's ultimate realization, whilst also more recently being wary and even critical of some of Adi Da's behaviour and behavioural patterns. Interestingly, he now works closely with Saniel Bonder, an ex-devotee of Adi Da, and now a respected spiritual teacher in his own right, and one who seems to be in agreement with Wilber's critique of his old teacher.

Related Topics:
Adi Da - Saniel Bonder

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Wilber is also conversant with the philosophies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred North Whitehead and Jürgen Habermas.

Related Topics:
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Alfred North Whitehead - Jürgen Habermas

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Wilber's influence

Wilber has a growing influence among scholars, business and organizational theorists, political analysts, and community change agents, and especially among religious scholars actively applying his insights into reframing conventional theology.

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His works have been read by several musicians, including Stuart Davis, Ed Kowalczyk of Live, Saul Williams and Billy Corgan.

Related Topics:
Stuart Davis - Ed Kowalczyk - Live - Saul Williams - Billy Corgan

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Not surprisingly, a number of important spiritual teachers have embraced much of what Wilber has to say. These include David Deida, Andrew Cohen, Lama Surya Das, Father Thomas Keating and Brother David Steindl-Rast.

Related Topics:
David Deida - Andrew Cohen - Lama Surya Das - Thomas Keating - David Steindl-Rast

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Charles Taylor, according to Wilber's publisher Shambhala "probably the world's most respected and admired living philosopher" http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/interviews/interview1220_2.cfm/, wrote:

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:"I have tremendously appreciated Wilber's work. He has managed to integrate so many things, and to keep his horizons open, where most of our culture keeps closing them down. It is magnificent work."

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Wilber's 2004 collaborative commentary on The Ultimate Matrix Collection DVD with Princeton professor Cornel West represents the most undeniable and enthusiastic acceptance of Wilber's importance by a top academic philosopher.

Related Topics:
The Ultimate Matrix Collection - Princeton - Cornel West

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The reluctance of other academic philosophers to warm to Wilber's work is undoubtedly due to its embrace of mysticism. To put it in terms of Wilber's philosophy, much of modern philosophy remains within the analytical/rational phase of Wilber's spectrum of consciousness model, and is therefore not paying appropriate attention to information available from transrational (i.e. vision-logic and higher) aspects of consciousness. Wilber draws attention to what he describes as "eight indigenous perspectives" and considers would be needed for a more comprehensive understanding of reality, offering significant support for integrating philosophical traditions of phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, behaviourism/empiricism, systems theory and cultural anthropology.

Related Topics:
Vision-logic - Eight indigenous perspectives - Phenomenology - Hermeneutics - Structuralism - Behaviourism - Empiricism - Systems theory - Cultural anthropology

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Wilber's five phases

Wilber himself identifies five phases http://www.integralworld.net/phases.html in the evolution of his ideas. According to Wilber, subsequent phases do not negate earlier phases, but transcend and include earlier phases, incorporating them into a deeper and more integrated whole.

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