Ken Wilber

Building an integral economic science: Opportunities and challenges

by Christian Arnsperger

Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, vol. 3, n° 4 (2008), pp. 1-16

This paper goes in tandem with the other one, "Spelling out Integral economics: The Full Spectrum project",... more This paper goes in tandem with the other one, "Spelling out Integral economics: The Full Spectrum project", which I published in the same journal in 2010 (see above). Together, both articles offer a new approach to economics based on the so-called "integral" approach of US philosopher Ken Wilber. They champion a methodology of combining different perspectives: the exterior of individuals, the exterior of collectives, the interior of individuals, and the interior of collectives. This allows the discipline of economics to be opened up to surprising new dimensions which the standard positivism (which pervades even front-line mainstream approaches such as complexity and behavioral economics) systematically neglects: the interior dimensions of phenomena, as experienced by individuals and -- yes -- also by collectives (the collective's experience of itself is called culture). Language becomes an essential part of economic interactions, and economists themselves need -- as part and parcel of their scientific endeavor -- to ask questions about their own motivations and emotions. Economics as a result becomes perhaps less easy to treat in purely formal terms, but it also becomes a much more deeply relevant discipline.

Spelling out integral economics: The Full Spectrum project

by Christian Arnsperger

Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, vol. 5, n° 3 (2010), pp. 174-192

This paper goes in tandem with the other one, "Constructing an Integral economic science: Opportunities and... more This paper goes in tandem with the other one, "Constructing an Integral economic science: Opportunities and challenges", which I published in the same journal in 2008 (see below). Together, both articles offer a new approach to economics based on the so-called "integral" approach of US philosopher Ken Wilber. They champion a methodology of combining different perspectives: the exterior of individuals, the exterior of collectives, the interior of individuals, and the interior of collectives. This allows the discipline of economics to be opened up to surprising new dimensions which the standard positivism (which pervades even front-line mainstream approaches such as complexity and behavioral economics) systematically neglects: the interior dimensions of phenomena, as experienced by individuals and -- yes -- also by collectives (the collective's experience of itself is called culture). Language becomes an essential part of economic interactions, and economists themselves need -- as part and parcel of their scientific endeavor -- to ask questions about their own motivations and emotions. Economics as a result becomes perhaps less easy to treat in purely formal terms, but it also becomes a much more deeply relevant discipline.

Apparatus of Capture: “Rhizomatic Contributions to Integral Ecology” and its Consequences (DRAFT)

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

Review Contesting Earth's Future by Michael Zimmerman

by Carl L Bankston

What Is Critical Integral Theory?

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

This is an essay iin response to a request to summarize what I have done, where I think needs to be redone or reconsidered, and where I intend to go with this work, published at Frank Visser's Integral World website. Find it here: http://www.integralworld.net/anderson9.html

Prajna on the Left?: In Reply and Gratitude to Raphael Foshay

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

Published at Integral World in response to Raphael Foshay's 2009 essay "Tension on the Left."

Towards A Post-Wilberian, Critical Integral Theory: Why It is Not Necessary to Read Past Page Five in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

Another experiment in engaged scholarship, also published at IntegralWorld.

A Key to All Methodologies: Communion, Conflict, and Commodity in Ken Wilber’s Rhetoric of DIY Science

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

I presented this paper at the 2010 RSA conference in Minneapolis, MN.  Some of the ideas in it were worked up at my blog: 

http://for-the-turnstiles.blogspot.com

Problems and Opportunities in Integral Cultural Criticism: Departing from Spheres of Awareness

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

Published at Frank Visser's IntegralWorld site.  This bit expresses my disappointment at the state of cultural critique among those who profess to be integral thinkers, and briefly proposes an alternative.

Of Truth and Falsehood in a Spiritual- Materialistic Sense: A Response to Sean Esbjörn-Hargens' Proposal for True But Partial

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

This is a position paper I wrote in response to a very strange call for papers. The tone is in places unnecessarily harsh, which I regret. I am sharing it because I think the ideas are worth considering as representative of an undercurrent of radical thought in integral studies. First published at Frank Visser's Integral World site.

A Sunny Second Coming: In Response to H.B. Augustine's “Integral Politics: A Brief Outline of and Introduction to the Integral Era”

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

This was published at Frank Visser's Integral World site. In it, I try to show how the idealistic views of time in certain New Age and "integral" thinkers has definite political consequences, with the understanding that a different view of time and transformation might indicate a more coherent social and political theory.

Vitvan and the School of the Natural Order: New Age Culture with a DIY Ethic

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

This paper began as a presentation at the Western Literature Association conference in Prescott, AZ, in the fall of 2010.  I published it afterward at Frank Visser's Integral World site.

Sweet Science: A Proposal for Integral Macropolitics

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

First published in the Integral Review.  This piece attempts to demonstrate a genuine problem in the ideology of integral theory in terms of time, history, and causation, and then proposes another way of understanding the dialectic of consciousness and transformation.  It is speculative and relies on a peculiar archive.  It is intended to be evocative and provocative.

Such a Body We Must Create: New Theses on Integral Micropolitics

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

First published in The Integral Review, 2008.  This is an attempt to think systematically through a rather eccentric archive.  The result is speculative and utopian, but hopefully it points to one way forward for the discourse of Consciousness Studies and Integral Theory.

Integral Theory After Wilber

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

An experiment in dialectical thinking

"Breaking Out of One's Head (& Awakening to the World)"

by Gregory Nixon

In JCER 2(7): Focus Issue on Self-Transcendent Experiences: Narrative & Analysis

Herein, I review the moment in my life when I awoke from the dream of self to find being as part of the living world.... more Herein, I review the moment in my life when I awoke from the dream of self to find being as part of the living world. It was a sudden, momentous event that is difficult to explain since transcending the self ultimately requires transcending the language structures of which the self consists. Since awakening to the world took place beyond the enclosure of self-speech, it also took place outside our symbolic construction of time. It is strange to place this event and its aftermath as happening long ago in my lifetime, for it is forever present; it surrounds me all the time just as the world seems to do. This fact puts into question the reality of my daily journey from dawn to dusk with all the mundane tasks I must complete (like writing of that which cannot be captured in writing). My linear march to aging and death inexorably continues, yet it seems somehow unreal, the biggest joke of all. Still, I here review the events leading up to my time out of mind and then review the serious repercussions when I was drawn back into the ego-self only to find I did not have the conceptual tools or the maturity to understand what had happened.

Integral Sustainable Design: transformative perspectives

by Mark DeKay

New book. Available from Amazon, Earthscan, or Routledge web sites

This book offers practical and theoretical tools for more effective sustainable design solutions and for communicating... more This book offers practical and theoretical tools for more effective sustainable design solutions and for communicating sustainable design ideas to today's diverse stakeholders.

It uses integral theory to make sense of the many competing ideas in this area and offers a powerful conceptual framework for sustainable designers through the four main perspectives of: behaviours; systems; experiences; cultures.

It also uses human developmental theory to reframe sustainable design across four levels of complexity present in society: the Traditional, Modern, Postmodern, and Integral waves. Profuse with illustrations and examples, the book offers many conceptual tools including:

• twelve principles of integral sustainable design
• sixteen prospects of sustainable design
• six perceptual shifts for ecological design thinking
• five levels of sustainable design aesthetics
• ten injunctions for designing connections to nature.

State of Affairs before the Fall: Roman Agrarian Legislation in the Republic of Cicero

by Zahra Stavis

Columbia thesis

This is a very integral paper to human history. It is not only a history detailing the reason for the fall of the... more This is a very integral paper to human history. It is not only a history detailing the reason for the fall of the Republic (and thus the Empire), it is a complete history of Rome itself. Moreover, it represents Cicero's view of the evolution of consciousness, of which the history of Rome is an integral part, and has it's place in the historiography set out by Ken Wilbur and many more. Look for a follow-up paper on these topics, which I am currently working on, "Simulacrum and Singularity."

Wilber's All-Quadrant Model: Implications for Constructive Postmodern Counseling Research and Practice

by Durwin Foster

A generous ontology: Identity as a process of intersubjective discovery – An African theological contribution

by Dion Forster

Forster, D.A., 2010, ‘A generous ontology: Identity as a process of intersubjective discovery – An African theological contribution’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 66(1), Art. #731, 12 pages. DOI: 10.4102/hts.v66i1.731

The answer to the question ‘who am I?’ is of fundamental importance to being human. Answers to this question have... more The answer to the question ‘who am I?’ is of fundamental importance to being human. Answers to this question have traditionally been sought from various disciplines and sources, which include empirical sources, such as biology and sociology, and phenomenological sources, such as psychology and religion. Although the approaches are varied, they have the notion of foundational truth, whether from an objective or subjective perspective, in common. The question of human identity that is the subject of this paper is germinated from the title of a book by WITS academic, Ivor Chipkin, entitled, Do South Africans exist? Nationalism, democracy and the identity of ‘the people’ (2007). This paper does not discuss Chipkin’s thoughts on nationalism and democracy; however, it considered the matter of human identity that is raised by his question. The approach taken by this paper on the notion of identity was significantly influenced by Brian McLaren’s postmodernist approach to Christian doctrine as outlined in his book A generous orthodoxy (2004) – a term coined by Yale Theologian, Hans Frei. The inadequacies of traditional approaches to human identity and consciousness that are based upon ‘foundational knowledge’ were thus considered. Both subjective and objective approaches to identity were touched upon, showing the weaknesses of these approaches in dealing with the complex nature of true human identity. The paper then presented an integrative framework for individual consciousness that is not static or ultimately quantifiable, but rather formulated in the process of mutual discovery that arises from a shared journey. The approach presented here drew strongly upon the groundbreaking work of Ken Wilber and Eugene de Quincey and related their ontological systems to the intersubjective approach to identity that can be found in the African philosophy and theology of ‘ubuntu’. This paper focused on how the ethics and theology of this indigenous knowledge system can contribute toward overcoming the impasse of validating individual identity in contemporary academic debates on human consciousness.