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Integral thought

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Integral Thought
Integral thinkers:
Integral themes:
Influences on integral thought:
Integral organizations:
This article is about integral thought in philosophy and psychology. It is unrelated to the concept of an integral in calculus. It is also unrelated to Integralism, a right-wing political philosophy.

Integral thought (also called the integral paradigm, the integral movement, or the integral approach) is comprised of those philosophies and teachings that seek a comprehensive understanding of humans and the universe by combining scientific and spiritual insights. According to the Integral Transformative Practice website, integral means "dealing with the body, mind, heart, and soul."

Integral thought is seen by proponents as going beyond rationalism and materialism. It attempts to introduce a more universal and holistic perspective or approach. Proponents view rationalism as subordinating, ignoring, and/or denying spirituality. Ken Wilber, one of the most prominent contemporary integral thinkers, begins by acknowledging and validating mystical experience, rather than denying its reality. As these experiences have occurred to humans in all cultures in all eras, integral theorists accept them as valuable and not pathological. Integral thinkers like Sri Aurobindo, Teilhard de Chardin, Wilber and others argue that both science and mysticism (or spirituality) are necessary for complete understanding of humans and the universe.

Contents

[edit] Problem of definition

Integral thought is a new and developing movement. Consequently, no list of integral thinkers or artists will be uncontroversial.

[edit] Origin of the term "Integral"

The Latin term integrare means restore, reconstitute, complement. The middle Latin word integral stands for constituting a whole. In a mathematical sense it means "to build wholeness from a linear incalculable".

[edit] Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

[edit] Originators of the term "Integral"

The word "integral" was originally used by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to describe the yoga they taught. Their integral yoga involves an integral divine transformation of the entire being, rather than the liberation of only a single faculty such as the intellect or the emotions or the body.

[edit] Followers of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo

The following authors/ organizations (listed in chronological order?) trace their intellectual heritage back to, or have in some measure been influenced by, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

  • Sisir Kumar Maitra (1887-?) was an academic philosopher who wrote widely on Sri Aurobindo and Western philosophy. Wrote an essay, "Sri Aurobindo and Spengler: Comparison between the Integral and the Pluralistic philosophy of History" in the 1958 symposium compendium, 'The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.'
  • Nolini Kanta Gupta (1889 - 1983) was one of Sri Aurobindo's senior disciples, and wrote extensively on philosophy, mysticism, and spiritual evolution in the light of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's teachings.
  • Anilbaran Roy - Another of Sri Aurobindo's senior disciples. In his 1940 book, Sri Aurobindo and The New Age, he reviewed the just-published The Life Divine and spoke of the emergence of what he called "Integral Harmony".
  • Indra Sen (1903-1994), another disciple of Sri Aurobindo who, although little-known in the West, was the first to articulate integral psychology and integral philosophy, in the 1940s and 1950s. A compilation of his papers came out under the title, Integral Psychology in 1986.
  • Ram Shankar Misra (dates?) was a scholar of Indian religious and philosophical thought and author of The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo (publ. 1957), a philosophical commentary on Sri Aurobindo's work.
  • Haridas Chaudhuri (1913-1975), a Bengali philosopher, was a correspondent with Sri Aurobindo and founded the California Institute of Integral Studies. In the Chapter IX captioned, "The Vedanta as Integral Non-dualism" of his 1951 book, 'Sri Aurobindo: The Prophet of Life Divine' he described Sri Aurobindo's philosophy as 'purnadvaita-vada.' Author of the book, 'Philosophy of Integralism,' he later developed his own theory of Integral psychology. Wrote the Title paper and edited the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo along with Frederic Spiegelberg.
  • Satischandra Chatterjee - Wrote an essay, "Mind and Supermind in Sri Aurobindo's Integralism" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • K. D. Sethna (Amal Kiran) - Wrote an essay, "The Poet of Integralism" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Arabinda Basu - Wrote the essays, "The Integration of Spiritual Experience" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, and "Integral Immortality" in Sri Aurobindo Circle, 1969.
  • J. N. Mohanty - Wrote an essay, "Integralism and the Modern Philosophical Anthropology" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • R. S. Srivastava - Wrote an essay, "The Integralist Theory of Evolution" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Rishabhchand - Wrote the essays, "The Integral Autonomy of Being" in The Advent, November, 1953, and "The Philosophical Basis of Integral Yoga" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Pitirim A. Sorokin - Wrote an essay, "The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Jay R. McCullough - Wrote an essay, "The Integral Approach in Sri Aurobindo and Jacob Boehme" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Judith M. Tyberg (Jyotipriya) - Wrote an essay, "The Drama of Integral Self-Realization" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Ruth Reyna - Wrote an essay, "Integralism: A Philosophie Perennis" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Ernest Wood - Wrote an essay, "The Concept of Integral Unity" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Raymond F. Piper - Wrote an essay, "Cosmic Integration" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Ninian Smart - Wrote an essay, "Integral Knowledge and the Four Theories of Existnce" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • Richard P. Marsh - Wrote an essay, "The Organismic Psychology of Andras Angyal in relation to Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of Integral Nondualism" in the 1958 symposium compendium, The Integral Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
  • M. Alan Kazlev (b. 1958) has created an integral philosophy based on the writings of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, Ken Wilber, and Michel Bauwens.
  • Dennis Hargiss coined the term "Integral phenomenology" to refer to the use of integral psychology for the study of mysticism and the sacred.
  • Bahman Shirazi of the California Institute of Integral Studies has further developed Integral Psychology along the lines pioneered by Haridas Chaudhuri.
  • D.P. Chattopadhyaya (Jr) - Professor and also a Minister for a while, he authored the 1976 book, 'Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx: Integral Sociology and Dialectical Sociology' introducing the term, "Integral Sociology."

[edit] Organisations and institutes

  • World Union - A non-profit, non-political organisation founded on the 26th November 1958 in Puducherry, fired by the Third Dream of Sri Aurobindo; also publishes a quarterly journal with the same title. A.B. Patel was the driving force and for many years, M.P. Pandit was the leading light.

[edit] Ken Wilber

The American philosopher and Buddhist Ken Wilber popularised Integral thought or integral thinking in the current sense, to develop an all-encompassing, evolutionary theory that incorporates and honours all perspectives, while at the same time presenting a larger picture. Wilber built upon the ideas of previous integral thinkers like Sri Aurobindo and Jean Gebser in developing his own highly complex integral theory.

[edit] Wilberian Integral thought

The following authors (listed in chronological order) are or have in the past been influenced by Wilber, but not by Aurobindo (except secondarily through Wilber's presentation of him).

  • Allan Combs is the author of The Radiance of Being: Understanding the Grand Integral Vision, Living the Integral Life. He has worked with Ken Wilber recently to create a theory which they call the "Wilber-Combs Lattice".
  • Frank Visser is a Dutch author and Theosophist who has incorporated Wilberian, Perennialist, and Theosophical concepts in an alternative to Wilber's Neo-perennialism. He is webmaster of Integral World, a website that hosts a large number of articles about Wilber and Integral Theory.

[edit] Integral thought - Sri Aurobindo and Ken Wilber

The following authors (listed in chronological order) have been influenced by or created a synthesis of the teachings of both Aurobindo and Wilber (and usually also other thinkers as well):

[edit] Integral artists

See main article Integral art

Integral art can be defined as art that reaches across multiple quadrants and levels, or simply as art that was created by someone who thinks or acts in an integral way. These artists may have been influenced by integral thinkers, or developed integral art independently.

  • Alex Grey (b. 1953) is a psychedelic visual artist whose works have been admired by Wilber and others.
  • Matthew Dallman (b. 1974), is an artist, musician, and philosopher, who has developed his own unique approach to Integral art, called Polysemy.

[edit] Other integral thinkers

The following thinkers and teachers use the term "integral", but are not associated with or followers of either Sri Aurobindo or Ken Wilber.

  • Ervin László (b. 1932) is a philosopher of science, systems theorist, and integral theorist who posits a field of information as the substance of the cosmos.
  • Roland Benedikter (b. 1965) is a Member of the Institute for the History of Ideas and Research on Democracy, Innsbruck, Austria, and has written books and essays on a number of subjects including postmodernist spirituality and integral thought.

[edit] Other thinkers

Many writers and artists who did not use the word "integral" to refer to their theories nonetheless are considered by theorists to act, think or theorize in an integral way. These include contemporary thinkers like Jurgen Habermas and Rupert Sheldrake, and historical figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Gandhi.

The following writers contributed essential ideas to integral thought:

  • John Heron (b. 1928) is a pioneer in the creation of a participatory research method (co-operative inquiry) in the social sciences, which has been applied by practitioners in many fields of professional and personal development. He is committed to co-operative inquiry as a basic form of relational and participative spiritual practice.
  • David Spangler (b. 1945) is an American spiritual philosopher and "practical mystic". With William Irwin Thompson he helped found of the Lindisfarne Association. He is author of Incarnational spirituality; a holistic, pragmatic approach to spirituality which rejects the otherworldly focus of conventional contemplative mysticism in favour of spiritual action by the physical, everyday self, recognition of the sacredness of the world around us, and balance of the inner and outer being.
  • Georg Feuerstein (b. 1947) is the author of Wholeness or Transcendence: Ancient Lessons for the Emerging Global Civilization, Structures of Consciousness: The Genius of Jean Gebser, An Introduction and Critique, co-author of In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, and founder of the Yoga Research and Education Center and Traditional Yoga Studies.
  • Michel Bauwens (b. 1958) views peer-to-peer technology as an integral phenomenon. He is a contributor to the journal Integral Review. Although originally a follower of Wilber, he is now a proponent of the participatory spirituality of John Heron and Jorge Ferrer, and is critical of cultic and authoritarian aspects of Wilber and his organisation.
  • Cornelis Slenters is the author of the LOTA philosophy of science; a unifying logical synthesis, through which relationships between evolution, creation, mind, matter, energy and consciousness become visible. First published in 1996 under the book title Breakthrough, the Origins of Mind, Space and Time

[edit] See also

[edit] Quotations

  • "But the Divine is in his essence infinite and his manifestation too is multitudinously infinite. If that is so, it is not likely that our true integral perfection in being and in nature can come by one kind of realisation alone; it must combine many different strands of divine experience. It cannot be reached by the exclusive pursuit of a single line of identity till that is raised to its absolute; it must harmonise many aspects of the Infinite. An integral consciousness with a multiform dynamic experience is essential for the complete transformation of our nature." — Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, p.114
  • "The word integral means comprehensive, inclusive, nonmarginalizing, embracing. Integral approaches to any field attempt to be exactly that—to include as many perspectives, styles, and methodologies as possible within a coherent view of the topic. In a certain sense, integral approaches are "meta-paradigms," or ways to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of approaches that are mutually enriching." —Ken Wilber, "Foreword", in Frank Visser, Ken Wilber: Thought As Passion
  • This means that the chief activity of integral cognition is not looking at all of the available theories—whether premodern, modern, or postmodern—and then asking, "Which one of those is the most accurate or acceptable?," but rather consists in asking, "How can all of those be right?" The fact is, all of the various theories, practices, and established paradigms—in the sciences, arts, and humanities—are already being practiced: they are already arising in a Kosmos that clearly allows them to arise, and the question is not, which of those is the correct one, but what is the structure of the Kosmos such that it allows all of those to arise in the first place? What is the architecture of a universe that includes so many wonderful rooms? — Ken Wilber, "The Ways We Are in This Together: Intersubjectivity and Interobjectivity in the Holonic Kosmos" Excerpt C of draft of forthcoming book, Kosmic Karma and Creativity
  • "The remarkable modern capacity for differentiation and discernment that has been so painstakingly forged must be preserved, but our challenge now is to develop and subsume that discipline in a more encompassing, more magnanimous intellectual and spiritual engagement with the mystery of the universe. Such an engagement can happen only if we open ourselves to a range of epistemologies that together provide a more multidimensionally perceptive scope of knowledge. To encounter the depths and rich complexity of the cosmos, we require ways of knowing that fully integrate the imagination, the aesthetic sensibility, moral and spiritual intuition, revelatory experience, symbolic perception, somatic and sensuous modes of understanding, empathic knowing. Above all, we must awaken to and overcome the great hidden anthropocentric projection that has virtually defined the modern mind: the pervasive projection of soullessness onto the cosmos by the modern self’s own will to power." Richard Tarnas, "Cosmos and Psyche", pg.41

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