January 22, 2006

INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY

PRE-MODERN (TRADITIONAL) INSIGHT

The Great Chain (Holarchy) of Being and Knowing: This is the Aperennial philosophy@ B the common core of the world=s great spiritual traditions. As pointed out by Arthur Lovejoy (1873-1962), Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), Huston Smith (c.1925-) and others, this core is the view that reality is composed of various levels of existence (levels of being, of knowing), ranging from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit (that is, as experienced by individuals). Each senior dimension transcends but includes (envelops, embraces) its juniors. The AChain@ (ANest@) consists of wholes within wholes, within wholes, indefinitely, reaching from dirt to Divinity. A whole which is part of other wholes is a holon, and the ANest@ is, therefore, a AHolarchy.@ Perennial philosophers such as Plotinus (205-270), Shankara (788-820), Fa-tsang (643-712), Lady Tsogyal (757-817) and Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), are among those who have told us that we live in a patterned Kosmos (pp. 5-6, 8-9 and 67).

A more sophisticated version of the Holarchy of Being includes not five, but 16 basic levels (Aholons of consciousness,@ Astructures,@ Awaves,@ Adimensions,@ Adevelopmental spaces,@ Amorphogenetic fields@). (See Table 1) (pp. 6-7, 16, 30, 90 and 189).

In today=s world, on the whole, collective development (evolution) has reached the formal level (p. 17).

Table 1: Levels of Consciousness*

Age at Emergence (average) (years)	Broad Category	Basic Levels
0-1 2	Sensorimotor	Matter, sensation, perception, exocept
1-3	Phantasmic-emotional	Impulse/emotion, image, symbol
3-6	Representational mind	Endocept, concept
7-12	Conventional operations	Rule/role (mythic world view)
13-20	Formal operations	Formal
21-28	Vision-logic	Vision-logic
28-35	Psychic	Psychic (nature mysticism)
35-42	Subtle	Subtle (deity mysticism)
42-49	Causal	Causal (formless mysticism)
40-	Non-dual	Non-dual (non-dual mysticism)

* Pp. 6-7, 13 and 201.

Inadequacies of the Great Holarchy:

The main inadequacies of the Great Chain include:

Lack of Differentiation of the Value Spheres: The Great Chain does not differentiate across its horizontal dimension. It does not differentiate the value spheres B intentional, cultural, behavioral, social (art, morals and science). The great traditions evidenced little understanding that states of consciousness (individual awareness, the individual subjective sphere)

* Are profoundly molded by cultural word views.

* Have correlates in the organic brain.

* Are profoundly molded by the modes of techno-economic production in their environment (pp. 143 and 145).

Lack of a Developmental View: The Great Chain often confuses the pre-formal levels, magic and mythic, with the post-formal levels, psychic and subtle. This is a pre-/post- fallacy which originates in a lack of understanding of the growth stages of the mind:

* 2-5 years, magic.

* 6-11 years, mythic.

* 11 years onward, rational.

* Adulthood, if then, vision-logic (integral-aperspectival) (p. 144).

Lack of an Evolutionary View: The Great Chain considers its levels as given statically, all at once, and, therefore, as unchanging and without dynamism. It does not understand the evolution of these levels over great periods of time (pp. 144-145).

THE INSIGHTS OF MODERNITY

1. The Differentiation of the Cultural Value Spheres: Modernity differentiated the cultural value spheres B art, morals and science (Table 2).

Table 2: Differentiation of the Four Value Spheres ^(a)

Intentional (Subjective) AI@	Cultural (Inter-subjective) AWe@	Behavioral (Objective) AIt@	Social (Inter-objective) AIts@
Truthfulness, Sincerity ^(b)	Cultural Fit, Mutual Understanding ^(b)	Objective Truth ^(b)	Functional Fit ^(b)
Prehension
Irritability
Sensation		Neuronal organisms
Perception		Neural cord
Impulse		Reptilian brain stem	Groups/families
Emotion		Limbic system
Symbols		Neocortex (triune brain) Hominids	Tribes Foraging ^(c)
Concepts Pre-operational		Complex neocortex	Tribal/village/kinship Horticultural ^(c) Neolithic society
Conventional, concrete operations Rules		Structure-functions 1 (Yet unknown)	Early state/empire Agrarian ^(c)
Post-conventional, Formal operations	Egoic/Rational/ Mental ^(d) Autonomy Ego identity	Structure-functions 2 (Yet unknown)	Nation/state Industrial ^(c)

See footnotes on p. 9 of the present document.

2. Developmental Lines: The developmental lines include:

a. Cognition: The Great Holarchy is one of being and knowing B that is, levels of being (individual development, ontology) and levels of knowing at these levels (epistemology), both being inseparable aspects of levels of reality. Various developmental lines proceed through the basic levels of consciousness.

To the extent that modernity recognized the Great Holarchy at all, it narrowed it to levels of knowing (a hierarchy of cognition), and further, acknowledged only the sensorimotor level of knowing (the apprehension of exterior, objective-empirical objects), excluding emotions, dreams, creative visions, subtle states, and peak experiences. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) narrowed the definition of cognition even further to types of logico-mathematical operations, claiming these to underlie all other developmental lines.

Since cognitive development is necessary, but not sufficient, for the development of other development lines, Piaget=s view is valid, but extremely partial. Piaget demonstrated that each level of development has its own world view, with different perceptions, modes of space and time, and moral motivations. Anticipating post-modernity, he showed that reality is not simply given, but is in many important ways, constructed (pp. 19-23).

b. Other Lines of Development: The other approximately 24 lines of development include morals, affects, self-identity, psycho-sexuality, cognition, ideas of the good, role-taking, socio-emotional capacity, creativity, altruism, Aspiritual@ (care, openness, concern, religious faith, meditative stages), joy, communicative competence, modes of space and time, death-terror, needs, world views, kinesthetic skills, gender identity, and empathy (pp. 23 and 28).

The Unfolding of the Developmental Lines:

c. The Sum Total of Development Lines: Developmental lines B logico-mathematical competence (cognition in Piaget=s sense) and the lines listed above in b., unfold in a relatively independent manner. They can develop:

i. Independently of each other.

ii. At different rates.

iii. With a different dynamic.

iv. On a different time schedule.

Thus, overall development (the sum total of all the lines) shows no linear (sequential) development (p. 28).

a. Individual Developmental Lines: Each developmental line itself, however, tends to unfold in a sequential, holarchical, and systematic fashion:

Sequentially: The stages emerge in an order that cannot be altered by environmental conditioning or social reinforcement. No stage is skipped.

Holarchically: Higher stages tend to build upon or incorporate the earlier ones.

Systematically: The lines go through the same set of general levels, and, therefore, have generally similar stages:

* A pre-conventional (physical, sensorimotor) stage.

* A conventional (concrete actions, rules) stage.

* A post-conventional (abstract, formal) stage (pp. 28-29).

Thus, as different talents, capacities, and skills emerge in individuals, they tend to follow the levels of the Great Holarchy, migrating through its morphogenetic field (developmental space) (p. 30).

From Differentiation into Dissociation: The differentiation of the value spheres (AI,@ AWe,@ AIt@ and AIts@), drifted into dissociation, however, as modernity allowed an imperialistic science to dominate the other spheres, claiming these to be void of inherent reality of their own. Science went from saying, AAll interior states have exterior, objective, material correlates,@ to saying, AAll interior states are nothing but material objects.@ This was scientism, scientific materialism:

* AThe nightmare of scientific materialism in which reality is Aa dull affair, soundless, scentless, colorless; merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly (Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947).

* AThe disenchantment of the world@ (Max Weber, 1864-1920).

* AThe disqualified universe@ (Lewis Mumford, 1895-1990).

* AThe nightmare of one-dimensional man@ (Herbert Marcuse, 1898-1979).

* A[Seeing humans] as objects of information, never subjects in communication@ (Michel Foucault, 1926-1984).

* AThe colonization of art and morals by science@ (Jurgen Habermas,

1929-) (pp. 59, 61, 64 and 70-71).

THE INSIGHTS OF POST-MODERNITY

1. The Integration of the Value Spheres at any One Time: This is the horizontal integration of art, morals and science. The post-modern emphasis on recognizing all domains was a reaction to the dissociation modernity had bequeathed it, with its result, the domination, marginalization and colonization by science of all forms of knowing and being except its own (p. 159).

2. The Integration of the Value Spheres through Time: This is a vertical integration across epochs. Increasing access to scientific data on evolution, revealed that the Great Holarchy shows development not just in individuals, but in the species as well, not just ontogenetically, but also phylogenetically. The Great Holarchy evolves with time. Table 3 is a summary of post-modernity=s horizontal integration across the value spheres and vertical integration across time (p. 78).

Pioneers: Early modern pioneers of an integration of the value spheres with the Great Holarchy include Johann Goethe (1749-1832), Georg Hegel (1770-1831), Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854), Gustav Fechner (1801-1887), and William James (1842-1910) (p. 78).

Major Contributors: In the 20^th century, major contributors include James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934), Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), Jean Gebser (1905-1973), Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), and Jurgen Habermas (1929-) (pp. 78-84).

Table 3: The Integration of Domains across Space and Time ^(a)

Intentional (Subjective) AI@	Cultural (Inter-subjective) AWe@	Behavioral (Objective) AIt@	Social (Inter-objective) AIts@
Truthfulness, Sincerity ^(b)	Cultural Fit, Mutual Understanding ^(b)	Objective Truth ^(b)	Functional Fit ^(b)
Prehension	Physical	Atoms	Galaxies
	Pleromatic	Molecules	Planets
Irritability	Protopasmic	Prokaryotes	Gaia system
	Vegetative	Eukaryotes	Heterotrophic ecosystems
Sensation		Neuronal organisms	Societies with division of labor
Perception	Locomotive	Neural cord
Impulse	Uroboric	Reptilian brain stem	Groups/families
Emotion	Typhonic	Limbic system
Symbols	Archaic	Neocortex (triune brain) Hominids	Tribes Foraging ^(c)
Concepts Pre-operational	Magic-animistic Blood lineage Body identity	Complex neocortex	Tribal/village/kinship Horticultural ^(c) Neolithic society
Conventional, concrete operations Rules	Mythic-membership, Dominator hierarchies Role identity	Structure-functions 1 (Yet unknown)	Early state/empire Agrarian ^(c)
Post-conventional, Formal operations	Egoic/Rational/ Mental ^(d) Autonomy Ego identity	Structure-functions 2 (Yet unknown)	Nation/state Industrial ^(c)
Vision-logic/ Existential/Integral- aperspectival	Centauric	Structure-functions 3 (Yet unknown)	Planetary Informational ^(c)

Footnotes to Table 3:

(d) SES pp. 0, 125, 142-145, 155, 162, 165, 169-176, 184-185, 191-194, 197-198, 389, 402 and 446; IP pp. 61-64.

^(b) Validity Criteria.

^(c) Mode of material production and technology.

^(d) This stage arises around 500 B.C. It is then that the first great religions take as their starting point, not the appeasement of gods and goddesses out there through magic or mythic ritual, but rather a look within B as Jesus of Nazareth would say, AThe Kingdom of Heaven is within.@ In Europe, the stage reaches its fruition around 1600, with the complete differentiation of the noosphere from the biosphere, and the rise of the modern state with the separation of church and state.

3. The Holarchic Elaboration of Developmental Lines: No matter how different the developmental lines may be, most of them unfold holarchically, and do so through the same general levels, evidencing, a physical/ sensorimotor/ pre-conventional stage, a concrete actions/ conventional rules stage, and a more abstract, formal, post-conventional stage. In learning to play a musical instrument, for example, one first grapples with the instrument physically, then learns the rules for using the instrument, and as skills become more abstract, one is able to apply these to an increasingly wide range of musical scores (p. 29).

Allowing for the possibility of yet higher, trans-personal stages of development, the lines then additionally, go through a Apost-post-conventional@ stage, and it becomes clear that the levels in question are but a simplified version of the Great Holarchy of Being B from body (sensorimotor), to mind (conventional and post-conventional), to spirit (post-post-conventional) (p. 29).

Major Contributors: All but one of the thirteen developmental psychologists contributing to the book, Higher stages of human development (1990. Charles Alexander and Ellen Langer Eds. New York: Oxford University), present models of developmental lines which, in crucial aspects, are hierarchical. Contributors to the volume include Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987), Carol Gilligan (1936-), Kurt Fisher (Present), Howard Gardner (2005), Karl Pribram (Present), and Robert Kegan (1982) (p. 29).

4. Interpretation as an Intrinsic Aspect of the Kosmos: Post-modernity makes interpretation central to both ontology (being) and epistemology (knowing). Interpretation is not only crucial for any understanding of the Kosmos, it is an aspect of the very structure of the Kosmos, an intrinsic feature of the fabric of the universe. The interior of holons can be accessed only by interpretation, and, therefore, interpretation is the very opening of the interiors of holons. Since the depth of the Kosmos goes Aall the way down,@ then, as Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) said, AInterpretation goes all the way down@ (the infinite extendability of context) (pp. 160-161 and 166).

The post-modern emphasis on interpretation represents the release of the subjective domains (singular and plural) from the oblivion to which modernity=s monological gaze of scientific monism, had relegated them (p. 162).

Pioneer: Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900) was an early pioneer.

Major Contributors: In the 20^th century, major contributors include Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), and Jacques Derrida (1930-) (p. 162).

5. Vision-logic: The post-modern world is, at its best, a post-formal world. It uses vision-logic to announce the endless networks of holonic interconnections which constitute the fabric of the Kosmos.

The post-modern world uses vision-logic to:

Become aware of its own evolution (Hegel, 1770-1831).

Represent the massive inter-relationships of the Kosmos.

Realize and articulate for the first time in history that knowing not only represents the Kosmos but also is a performance of the Kosmos. All modes of knowing, of course, are a performance of the Kosmos, but with vision-logic, post-modernity becomes self-conscious of this fact and is able to articulate it.

Declare that meaning resides in relationships. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) showed that in language, meaning is given by the whole, not any one of its elements. It is stabilized by the relationship between the words, and a meaningless element becomes meaningful only by virtue of the total structure.

All meaning is context-dependent and contexts are boundless.

Produce the extensively elaborated versions of systems theory in the natural sciences

The Agenda of Post-modernity: Post-modernity intends to:

* Be holistic, embracing, inclusive, integral, non-exclusionary.

* Thrive for Adiversity,@ Amulti-culturalism,@ Apluralism.@

* Invite all races, all colors, all people, all genders into a rainbow coalition of mutual respect and recognition.

* Avoid Amarginalizing@ the many voices and viewpoints that a powerful modernity often overlooked.

* Avoid the Ahegemony@ of formal rationality, considering it to often repress the non-rational and the irrational (p. 159).

Assumptions of Post-modernity: The core assumptions of post-modernity are:

Constructivism: Reality is in significant ways a construction, an interpretation. Consciousness does not merely reflect the world, it helps construct it. The belief that reality is simply given and not also partly constructed (direct realism, naive empiricism), is referred to as Athe myth of the given.@

Contextualism: Meaning is context-dependent, and contexts are boundless. As Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) put it, AThe limits of my language are the limits of my world.@

Integral-aperspectivism: Cognition must not unduly privilege any single perspective. As many perspectives as humanly possible must be included in an integral embrace (pp. 162-168 and 192).

Historically, these assumptions came to the fore by looking a language, Athe linguistic turn,@ pioneered by Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) (p. 165).

An Example of the Waves of Existence: Table 4 is a post-modern model which is contributing to an understanding of sources of conflict in the world.

Table 4: The Journey of the Self through the Waves of Existence^(a)

Wave / Characteristics	Population Group	Percent of World Population/Power
Archaic-instinctual. Self is barely sustained. Basis for survival bands.	First human societies, newborn infants.	0.1 0
Magical-animistic. Thinking is atomistic: AThere is a name for each bend in the river, but no name for the river.@ Basis for ethnic tribes.	Family rituals, Third World settings, gangs, athletic teams, corporate Atribes,@ those with magic beliefs.	5 1
Power Gods. Powerful, impulsive, egocentric, heroic. Mythic spirits. Basis for feudal empires.	The Aterrible two=s,@ frontier mentality, feudal kingdoms, epic heroes, conquerors.	20 5
Conformist. Only one right way to think about everything. Law and order. Basis of ancient nations.	Puritan America, Islamic fundamentalism, Boy and Girl Scouts, patriotism, chivalry.	40 30
Scientific Achievement. The world is a chess board game in which winners gain perks and pre-eminence over losers. Basis of corporate states.	The Enlightenment, emerging middle classes around the world, Wall Street, colonialism, the Cold War.	30 50
The Sensitive Self. Pluralistic relativism. Against hierarchy. Emphasis on dialogue, relationships. Subjective, non-linear thinking. Basis of collective communities.	Post-modernism, humanistic psychology, liberation theology, diversity movements, human rights concerns.	5 15
Integrative^(b) The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels of reality.	B	0.9 B
Holistic^(b) Unites feeling with knowledge (Ken Wilber=s centaur).	B	0.1 B

^(a) IP, pp. 47-53. From Don Beck and Christopher Cowan. 1996. Spiral Dynamics B Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. ALevel of existence@ is the term first used by Clare Graves. The model does not mention levels of consciousness, although it covers them up to and including approximately the vision-logic level. The model does not cover the higher, trans-personal levels of consciousness.

^(b) Second-tier thinking. This vison-logic awareness appreciates the necessary role that all of the various levels of existence play and thinks in terms of the overall spiral of existence, not merely in the terms of any one level.

From Constructive Inclusiveness to Nihilistic Deconstruction: The pluralistic embrace of the four value spheres, however, gave way to a leveling of all qualitative distinctions B the denial of qualitative distinctions and hence, of holarchies. All hierarchies were deemed marginalizing and therefore, rejected. No stance was inherently better that any other. All voices should be treated equally, without judgement. Diversity thus had no way to integrate and harmonize the pluralistic voices. In this way, post-modernism denied the importance of development altogether (pp. 160 and 171).

CONCLUSIONS

An integral psychology must embrace the enduring insights of pre-modern, modern, and post-modern sources while avoiding their failings (p. 5).

Pre-modernity:

+ Disclosed the Great Holarchy of Being and Knowing.

B The great traditions, however, did not differentiate the four value spheres (AI,@ AWe,@ AIt,@ and AIts@ B art, morals and science). They did not evidence understanding of either development within an individual, or evolution within the species.

Modernity:

+ Differentiated the value spheres. Modernity realized that these value spheres evolve in the individual, and that numerous developmental lines migrate through each level of these value spheres.

B Modernity focused on the subjective, individual domain. It did not understand the evolution within the value spheres it had differentiated. In addition, modernity let its differentiation drift into dissociation, thereby allowing a rampant scientific materialism to erase virtually every value modernity=s differentiation had freed.

Post-modernity:

+ Access to scientific data on evolution enabled post-modernity to realize that levels of consciousness evolve not only in individuals, but also in the species over long periods of time. Post-modernity showed that developmental lines unfold holarchically according the levels of Being described by the Great Holarchy of Being and Knowing. Post-modernity understood that consciousness not only reflects the world, but also helps construct it (constructivism); that holons are nested indefinitely B the Kosmos is endlessly holonic (contextualism); and that as many perspectives as humanly possible should be included in an integral embrace (integral-aperspectivism).

B Post-modernity, however, even while thus attempting to integrate the value spheres, fell into the extreme of nihilism (a negation of all holarchy), and thus was able to produce only heaps, not an integrated diversity.

REFERENCES

All page numbers refer to:

Wilber, Ken. 2000. Integral psychology B consciousness, spirit, psychology, therapy. Boston, MA: Shambhala. (In footnotes of Tables 3 and 4, abbreviated as IP).

Except for Table 3, which also refers to:

Wilber, Ken. 1995/2000. Sex, ecology, spirituality B the spirit of evolution. 2^nd edition, Revised. Boston, MA: Shambhala. (Abbreviated as SES).

***