Subject: Wilber's Critics Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 23:22:00 +0200 From: Frank Visser To: f.visser3@chello.nl WILBER FRIENDS MAILING LIST =========================== http://www.worldofkenwilber.com Amsterdam, June 29 2003 Hi Wilber Friend, >From the start the World of Ken Wilber website has published critical pieces related to the work of Ken Wilber. The reason for this is that a spiritual organisation, to stay healthy, should not only allow for criticism, but even encourage it. The integral movement needs all these things: reflection, application, even propaganda, but also assessment - "comparison and assessment of its methods and teachings with those of other paths, not as propaganda but as free inquiry" (Ken Wilber, Spiritual Choices, 1987, p. 248). In that spirit, two new critical pieces posted recently on the WOKW website deserve special attention: MARK EDWARDS, "I" and "Me" and "We" and "Us" and "You" and "Yous": Sorting out Ken's Holon of Mixed Perspectives, THROUGH AQAL EYES (part 7). In this essay Edwards questions Wilber's reliance on the four quadrants model (or its threefold simplification of I, We and It) to map out all possible perspectives in the universe, since it does not allow for a full treatment of the "You" (which is included in the "We"), and subsumes all cases of "him/her/them" under the ominous heading of "It/Its." Edwards proposes to replace this base-4 classification with a base-3 scheme (the universal I/You/Him-Her - or the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person; 1p, 2p, 3p) - which he then elaborates in a stunning number of 42 permutations, following the lead of the "integral calculus" Wilber has started to explore in his recent writings Consider subtle perspectives such as: "their notion of your view of me" or "his/her notion of someone else's view of them". These could be written as 3p*pl(2-p*pl)x1p*pl and 3p(2-p)x3p - Read on! JEFF MEYERHOFF, Bald Ambition: A Critique of Ken Wilber's Theory of Everything (book in progress). Meyerhoff's project is the first book length criticism of Wilber's philosophy and it is written (predictably) from a postmodern perspective. the reason for posting Meyerhoff's outline is that he presents IMO a healthy contrast to what may be an overconfident belief in the integral Story as told by ken, or at least his particular version of that Story. meyerhoff's main thesis is that ken may be a brilliant story teller, but he's a bad scholar. that may be true, or not true, but the point is: as long as ken is believed on his word, nobody will check it out. meyerhoff has tracked down many quotes in SES from authors such as Fish, Katz, Derrida, Habermas, etc. and accuses ken of being selective to fit his Story. Meyerhoffs programme: "While there have been mild piece-meal criticms of Wilber's work, there is no systained book-length critique that examines closely his sholarly sources and arguements and offers a response from a strongly formulated critical, rational, postmodern and spirtually informed position. I examine the major areas Wilber weaves together into his integral synthesis and demonstrate the problems (and strengths) of his arguments, methods, underlying philosophy and use of sources." IMO, this project is timely, relevant and legitimate. It's value or truth should, of course, be hotly debated in the Reading Room ! RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE WORLD OF KEN WILBER WEBSITE: 06/26/03: A German translation by Michael Habecker and Monika Monika Frühwirth of Excerpt G on subtle energy has been posted in the German section. 06/25/03: The essay "Change in the Netherlands" analyzing the eventful murder of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn in the summer of 2002, written by Peter Merry and Rob Geurtsen has been posted in the Spiral Dynamics section. 06/25/03: Part 7 of the series "Through AQAL Eyes" by Mark Edwards called ""I" and "Me" and "We" and "Us" and "You" and "Yous": Sorting out Ken's Holon of Mixed Perspectives" has been posted in the Reading Room. 06/22/03: The essay "Towards an Integral Analysis of the Iraq Crisis" by Gregory Wilpert has been posted in the Reading Room. 06/20/03: A summary article of a book-in-progress on Wilber by Jeff Meyerhoff called "Bald Ambition" has been posted in the Reading Room. 06/18/03: A French translation by Eric de Rochefort of Ken Wilber's foreword to my book KEN WILBER: THOUGHT AS PASSION (SUNY, 2003) has been added to the French Section. 06/15/03: A report of the symposium on the work of Ken Wilber in Madrid last May has been posted in the Spanish Section. Have a good holiday everybody - time to read ! frank -- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Frank Visser, Waterpoortweg 279, 1051 PV A'dam, Netherlands Read all about Ken Wilber : http://www.worldofkenwilber.com xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx