From: Integral World [f.visser3@chello.nl]
Sent: zondag 28 januari 2007 14:21
To: f.visser3@chello.nl
Subject: [personal] The Middle East

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Newsletter Nr. 180
Amsterdam, January 28, 2007

WILBER WATCH BLOG: "2006: WHAT A YEAR!"
http://wilberwatch.blogspot.com/


Ray Harris sent me a new essay, on the Middle East. An informeed integral perspective on 
this burning issue, which goes beyond the usual generalities, is long overdue, I think. 
By the way, it is his thirteeth contribution to this website. Thanks Ray!

INTEGRAL NOTES ON THE ISRAEL/ARAB CONFLICT - Ray Harris

The Israel/Arab conflict is complex; it is in effect several conflicts fought across all 
quadrants and levels. Yet in its essence it is, I believe, a conflict between competing 
narratives of identity – in short, if you exist then I cannot exist. 

All sides indulge in such exclusionary logic and to understand the conflict we need to 
understand the competing narratives and that the extremes of each of the polarised positions 
refuse to accept the narrative of its opposite. Thus Arabs refuse to acknowledge the Jewish 
claim on the area and Jews refuse to acknowledge Arab and Muslim claims. The Zionists had a 
saying, 'a land with no people for a people with no land'. This could not have been a more 
disastrous assertion and one guaranteed to offend any resident of Palestine, including 
non-Arab members of minority religious groups (who deserve mention). Similarly the counter-claim 
that Jews do not have any legitimate claim to the land is equally offensive and disastrous. 

It is important from an integral perspective that we understand the narratives of each 
stakeholder. I can only give an outline here and I apologise if brevity leads to omission.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/harris30.html


A DIFFERENT PATH - Jeff Meyerhoff

My critique of Ken Wilber's project demonstrates the continually contrary nature of 
intellectual debate. In chapter after chapter I show the legitimate alternative perspectives 
and arguments against what Wilber presents as the "simple, but sturdy" truths of academia. 
Even the natural sciences - thought of as the royal road to reality - can now, since Thomas 
Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend, be seen as one among many worldviews. To object that this is a 
misinterpretation of Kuhn and that Feyerabend goes too far is to become part of the ongoing 
debate in the philosophy of science, epistemology and science studies. 

Wilber champions a false consensus in the sciences. In contrast, I show the profound 
differences in perspective in many areas of study such as cultural psychology, poststructuralism, 
mysticism and sociology that are excluded or tendentiously interpreted in order to create a 
false inclusiveness that masks the radically perspectival nature of knowing. 

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/meyerhoff-ba-9.html


Other recent postings 

THE AGE OF WILBERIUS - A REVIEW OF INTEGRAL SPIRITUALITY - Geoffrey Falk 
http://www.integralworld.net/falk3.html

EVERYBODY IS RIGHT - A REVIEW OF THOUGHT AS PASSION - Wouter Hanegraaff 
http://www.integralworld.net/hanegraaff.html


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