Information AboutAqal |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT AQAL | |
| integral theory | |
| ken wilber | |
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AQAL Quadrants Each Holon has an interior Perspective (an inside) and an exterior perspective (an outside). It also has an individual perspective and a collective (or plural) perspective. If you map these into quadrants, you have four quadrants, or Dimensions . To give an example of how this works, consider four schools of Social Science . Freud ian Psychoanalysis , which Interprets people's interior experiences, is an account of the interior Individual (or upper-left) quadrant. B. F. Skinner 's Behaviorism , which limits itself to the Observation of the Behavior of Organism s, is an exterior individual (upper-right) account. Gadamer 's Philosophical Hermeneutics interprets the Collective Consciousness of a Society , and is thus an interior plural (lower-left) perspective. Marxist Economic theory examines the external behavior of a society (lower-right). Thus all four pursuits—psychoanalysis, behaviorism, philosophical hermeneutics and Marxism—offer complementary, rather than contradictory, perspectives. It is possible for all to be correct and necessary for a complete account of human Existence . Wilber has integrated these four areas of Knowledge through an acknowledgment of the four fundamental dimensions of existence. Eight indigenous perspectives In Wilber's recent work (after 2004), he sometimes refers to "eight indigenous perspectives", rather than the four quadrants outlined above. One can offer separate interior and exterior accounts of, for example, the interior individual dimension. He offers Buddhist accounts of Meditative States as an example of the former, and Spiral Dynamics (a theory of Human Development ) as an example of the latter. These interior and exterior accounts apply to all four quadrants, resulting in eight indigenous perspectives. Lines, streams, or intelligences Are you more highly developed in certain areas than in others? According to Wilber, all holons have multiple lines of Development , or Intelligences —in fact, over two dozen have been observed. They include Cognitive , Ethical , Aesthetic , Spiritual , Kinesthetic , Affective , Musical , spatial, Logic al- Mathematical , Karmic , etc. One can be highly developed cognitively (cerebrally smart) without being highly morally developed (as in the case of Nazi doctors). However, Wilber acknowledges, you cannot be highly morally developed without the pre-requisite cognitive development. So not all of the developmental lines are Ontologically equivalent. Levels or stages The concept of levels follows closely on the concept of lines of development. The more highly developed you are in a particular line, the higher level you are at in that line. Wilber's conception of the level is clearly based on several theories of 's Theory Of Cognitive Development , Kohlberg 's Stages Of Moral Development , Maslow 's Hierarchy Of Needs , Erikson 's Stages Of Psychosocial Development , and Jane Loevinger 's developmental model of personality. The simplest categorization that Wilber uses contains four levels:
Another scheme describes the ethical developmental line:
Within each broad stage, there are sub-levels. Spiral Dynamics is one theory that elaborates on these sub-levels. Another broad organization of the levels contains three categories:
This organization reveals more of Wilber's synthesizing ability. Freudian drives, Jung ian Archetypes , and myth are pre-personal structures. Empirical and rational processes are at the personal level. Transpersonal entities include, for example, Aurobindo 's Overmind, Emerson 's Oversoul, Plato 's Forms, Plotinus ' ''nous'', and the Hindu Atman , or world-soul. The exceptional feature of Wilber's approach is that, under this methodology, all of these mental structures — subconscious, rational, mystical—are considered complementary and legitimate, rather than competing in a Zero-sum conceptual space. And that is perhaps Wilber's greatest accomplishment — the opening up of a space wherein more ideas, theories, beliefs, and stories can be considered true, responsible, and acceptable. Many criticize the strict using a similar line of argument. As Wilber remarks in the CD interview ''Speaking of Everything'': "This can all be done deductively." In other words: 'I could be wrong about the precise characteristics of some or all of the stages or levels. But nonetheless, it's clear that psychological and cultural development follows a pattern, and that pattern is always from more partial to more whole.' States A state is basically a level that is attained only temporarily. Once you have unlimited access to a state of consciousness, then it is a permanent structure, or a developmental level. States of consciousness include: waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and nondual. (In the mystical traditions of which Wilber is a part, these four states correspond to four realms: Gross , Subtle , Causal , and Nondual .) Thus it is theoretically possible for someone at a low Cognitive level to experience an advanced mystical state. Types These are valid distinctions that are not covered under Wilber’s other categorizations. Masculine/feminine, the nine Enneagram categories, and Jung 's archetypes and typologies, among innumerable others, are all valid types in Wilber's schema. Wilber makes types part of his model in order to point out that these distinctions are different from, and in addition to the already mentioned distinctions: quadrants, lines, levels and states. THEORY OF TRUTH Wilber observes that there are multiple aspects to existence, and that each has its own truth-standard, or test for validity, as follows:
# ''Exterior individual'' - "We check to see if the proposition ''corresponds'' with or fits the facts, if the map accurately reflects the real territory... if we cannot disprove it we may assume it is accurate enough. But the essential idea is that... my statement somehow refers to an ''objective state of affairs'', and it fairly accurately somehow corresponds with those objects or processes or affairs. [... All of which is fair enough and important enough, and I in no way deny the general importance of empirical representation. It's just not the whole story..." # ''Interior individual'' - if we look at the actual ''interior'' of an individual {Link without Title} , then we have an entirely different type of validity claim. The question here is not, is it raining outside? The question here is, When I tell you it is raining outside, am I telling you the truth or am I lying? You see, here it is not so much a question of whether the map matches the objective territory, but whether the mapmaker can be trusted.... you can always check and see if it's raining... Interior events are located in states of consciousness, not in objective states of affairs, and so you can't empirically nail them down with simple consensus location. I might lie to you. I might lie to myself. I might misrepresent and not know it." # ''Interior collective'' - "The ''subjective'' world is situated in an ''intersubjective'' space, a cultural space... without this cultural background... I wouldn't have the tools to interpret my own thoughts to myself. So here the validity claim is not so much objective propositional truth, or subjective truthfulness, but ''intersubjective fit''. This cultural background provides the common context against which my own interior thoughts and beliefs will have some sort of meaning, and so the validity criteria here involves the "cultural fit" a statement within this background... What is so remarkable about common understanding is not that I can take a simple word like "dog" and point to a real dog and say "I mean that." What is so remarkable is that ''you'' know what ''I'' mean by that. it is a matter of how we arrange collectively, our ethics, morals, laws, culture, group or collective identities, background contexts..." # ''Exterior collective'' - "The main validity claim is ''functional fit'', how entities fit together in a system... So in systems theory you will find nothing about ethical standards, values, morals, mutual understanding, truthfulness, sincerity, depth, integrity, aesthetics... It describes the system in purely objective exterior terms, from without. It doesn't want to know how collective values are intersubjectively shared in mutual understanding. Rather, it looks at how their objective correlates ''functionally fit'' in the overall system." "All four of these are valid forms of knowledge, because they are grounded in the realities of the nature of every holon. And therefore all four of these truth claims can be confirmed or rejected by a community of the adequate competent in that knowledge . They each have a different validity claim which carefully guides us, through checks and balances, on our knowledge quest. They are all falsifiable within their own domains, which means false claims can be dislodged by further evidence...." Source and table: |
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