Integral Theory,Ken Wilber

Integral Theory is an area of discourse emerging from the theoretical psychology and philosophy of Ken Wilber, a body of work that has evolved in phases from a transpersonal psychology synthesizing Western and non-Western understandings of consciousness with notions of cosmic, biological, human, and divine evolution into an emerging field of scholarly research focused on the complex interactions of ontology, epistemology, and methodology.Wilber claims it offers a "Theory of Everything" described as a "post-metaphysical" worldview and a "trans-path path" for holistic development; however, the discourse has received limited acceptance in mainstream academia and has been sharply criticized by some for insularity and lack of rigor.
It has been widely ignored at mainstream academic institutions.
Integral Theory has been applied in a variety of different domains: Integral Art, Integral Ecology, Integral Economics, Integral Politics, Integral Psychology, Integral Spirituality, and others. The first interdisciplinary academic conference on Integral Theory took place in 2008. Integral Theory is said to be situated within Integral studies, described as an emerging interdisciplinary field of discourse. Researchers have also developed applications in areas such as leadership, coaching, and organization development.


enneth Earl Wilber II (born January 31, 1949) is an American author who has written about adult development, developmental psychology, philosophy, worldcentrism, ecology, and stages of faith. His work formulates what he calls Integral Theory. In 1998, he founded the Integral Institute, for teaching and applications of Integral theory.

Wilber's holism
A key idea of Wilber's is the holon, which came from the writings of Arthur Koestler. He observed that it seems every entity and concept shares a dual nature: as a whole unto itself, and as a part of some other whole. For example, a cell in an organism is a whole and at the same time a part of another whole, the organism.
Another example is that a letter is a self-existing entity and simultaneously an integral part of a word, which then is part of a sentence, which is part of a paragraph, which is part of a page; and so on. Everything from quarks to matter to energy to ideas can be looked at in this way.
In his book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Wilber outlines approximately twenty tenets that characterize all holons.These tenets form the basis of Wilber's model of manifest reality.


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 developmental psychology, including: Piaget's theory of cognitive development,[12] Kohlberg's stages of moral development, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, and Jane Loevinger's stages of ego development.
One such scheme describes the ethical developmental line, for example:
Egocentric (similar to Carol Gilligan's 'Selfish' stage)
Ethnocentric or Sociocentric (Gilligan's 'Care' stage)
Worldcentric (Gilligan's 'Universal Care' stage)
Being-centric (Gilligan's 'Integrated' stage)
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:
pre-personal (subconscious motivations)
personal (conscious mental processes)
transpersonal (integrative and mystical structures)
This organization reveals more of Wilber's synthesizing activity. Freudian drives, Jungian 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 hierarchical nature of Wilber's conception of the level in psychological and cultural development, which he compares to the hierarchical nature of matter itself. Sub-atomic particles are composed of quarks. Atoms are made of sub-atomic particles. Molecules are made of atoms. Cell organelles are made of molecules, etc. One must attain the lower levels before the higher levels because the higher levels are constituted by the lower level components. Thus, when represented graphically, the levels should appear as concentric circles, with higher levels transcending but also including lower ones. Wilber also attacks the equating of hierarchy with patriarchy using a similar line of argument.