What word do they use instead?
Kosmo Erotic Humanism
I’m late to this party. I consider this is a very important thread because it has implications for the validity of Wilber’s metatheory of knowledge. I have been following Wilber since the mid 90s and therefore have ‘skin in the game’ for the legitimacy of his work as it relates to ontology and epistemology. For some 30 years I have seen various attempts to engage with intellectuals and other interested parties regarding Wilber’s intellectual project.
However, I’ve been waiting for a significant uptake by the relevant academies of learning to provide Wilber with a proper vetting of his ideas among a jury of his peers. Crickets. For example, I recently conducted a literature search on two venerable philosophy journals (Wilber identifies as a philosopher) from two philosophy academies, one in the UK and the other in the US.
The Philosophical Quarterly is a UK peer-reviewed journal established in 1950, published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Scots Philosophical Association and the University of St Andrew. Over the years, it has garnered a reputation as one of the leading platforms in the UK for philosophical discourse.
The American Philosophical Association is the primary professional organization for philosophers in the United States. It was founded in 1900. Its associated journal publication is the Journal of the American Philosophical Association, published by Cambridge University Press. This journal features a vigorous, triple-peer-reviewed process, covers a wide range of philosophical research, and encourages interdisciplinary discourse.
Two philosophy academies with reputable associated journals in the UK and US. I entered this search command: Ken Wilber OR Integral Theory.
Crickets.
Where are the academic conferences that discuss Wilber’s contribution to philosophy that are then published as conference proceedings? Is there a major philosopher who has provided a critical review of Wilber’s philosophy, such as Putnam, the late Rorty, or Blackwell?
It is my view that Wilber supplies the most comprehensive, postmodern metaphysic currently available. In particular, he has made an extraordinary contribution to the return of spirit, spirituality, and religion in the field of philosophy. I am therefore gobsmacked that after 30 years I can find no serious engagement with a reputable philosopher from one of the major philosophy academies with an associated journal entry. I would be delighted to be wrong about this.
If the foregoing is correct, what are the implications for the legitimacy and credibility of Wilber’s truth claims? For philosophy academies, why have they not seriously engaged with Wilber? For Wilber, why has there been no formal, serious engagements (to my knowledge) with the academies of philosophy?
Siloed knowledge, the fragmentation of knowledge, the failure to communicate, and echo chambers are surely not part of the spirit of Integralism, as Wilber’s many publications for the general public will attest.
But where may I find the formal vetting of his ideas by a jury of his philosophical peers, published in an official journal of the academy? What’s going on here?
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Hi Wesley, welcome to the community! We’re glad /sad/mad to have you (a little bit of Integral humor) 
What I have witnessed is that critical reviews of Wilburs work are viewed as “attacks” by people “who hate ken”.
Its also presented as “take it or leave it” meaning if you disagree with an aspect of it and want to discuss it, you just arent Teal enough to undrstand Kens genius.
There is for sure a cult aspect to Integral that resists critical review.
As far as modern philosophers - I follow “Hanzi Frinacht” on facebook and he often discusses Integral adjacent topics but without ever saying “integral”.
This seens to be the way to go - theres a lot of cultish baggage to deal with when discussing “Integral Theory”, but if you just use synonyms or derivative terms and never mention Ken you can avoid all of that.
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I’m a longtime reader, first-time poster. Three interrelated challenges come to my mind: the mean Green meme, Ken Wilber’s response to his critics generally, and citation specifically. Elaborating on all of these would make for a long post, but one illustration is Wilber’s dialog with Jorge Ferrer during the transpersonal psychology movement’s turn to participatory pluralism.
The marriage of sense and soul, which (unlike Sex, Ecology, Spirituality) has no endnotes, has this summary of valid spiritual knowledge:
Authentic spirituality, in short, must be based on direct spiritual experience, and this must be rigorously subjected to the three strands of all valid knowledge: injunction, apprehension, and confirmation/rejection—or exemplar, data, and falsifiability.
~ Wilber, K. (1998) The marriage of sense and soul: integrating science and religion. 1st. Broadway Books trade pbk. ed. New York: Broadway Books.
In his 15-page review of The marriage of sense and soul, Jorge Ferrer mentions falsifiability 37 times across eight pages; of his six dozen citations, nine are on falsifiability; and a handful of his 14 quotes from the book are about falsifiability as well, for example:
Central to Wilber’s proposal is a defense of Popper’s principle of falsifiability as the criterion for both anchoring the validity of knowledge claims and demarcating between genuine and dogmatic knowledge in every domain: sensory, mental, and spiritual. In the sense Wilber uses it, falsifiability holds that genuine knowledge must be potentially refutable by experiential evidence, and that this falsifiability allows us to demarcate between science and pseudoscience: “The falsifiability principle,” he tells us, “becomes an important aspect of the knowledge quest in all domains, sensory to mental to spiritual. And in each of those domains, it does indeed help us to separate the true from the false, the demonstrable from the dogmatic” (p. 160).
~ Ferrer, J.N. (1998) ‘Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace: A Review Essay Of Ken Wilber’s The Marriage Of Sense And Soul: Integrating Science And Religion’, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 30(1), pp. 53–67.
In this quote, Ferrer addresses two points:
- falsifiability as a strand of valid knowledge, and
- falsifiability as demarcating between science and pseudoscience.
Wilber replies to Ferrer in four pages with no quotes and four citations (all his own books). Three of the pages confirm a point already granted in Jorge’s quote, that the mental and spiritual domains are different from the sensory domain–the word “sensory” appears 13 times. Falsifiability is the topic of one paragraph, addressing Ferrer’s second point:
Jorge’s other two issues-falsifiability and the perennial philosophy—can be dealt with rather briefly. I agree that falsifiability does not work as the sole or even major criterion of scientific knowledge; I never said it did. Rather, I use a very general version of falsifiability as merely one of several criteria of valid knowing (as does Habermas, Peirce, etc.). It simply means we hold all of our experiences open to further refinement (corroboration or challenge). Even if a single spiritual teacher doesn’t do this, the experience of a broader community does, or else no new religious insights would ever emerge.
~ Wilber, K. (1998) ‘Response To Jorge Ferrer’s “Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace- A Review Essay Of Ken Wilber’s The Marriage Of Sense And Soul”’, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 30(1), pp. 69–72.
It appears to me that Jorge and Ken were talking past each other, and that Jorge’s approach was more “academic.”
You are straightforward and boldly so. You’ve definitely raised some important points here. Many thanks. “There is for sure a cult aspect to Integral that resists critical review.” I am particularly concerned about any ‘resistance to critical review’ rather than engaging directly and persuasively. But where in any philosophy publication from just one of at least 10 major philosophy academies is there any critical review? So far, I’ve found zip.
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Wow. That was well put together, complete with source citations. After reading your thoughtful response, I’m appreciating your conclusion that two bright people are talking past each other. There was an attempt at meaningful engagement, even if it didn’t really connect fruitfully. But at least there was an attempt at engagement. My problem is that I’m not finding such engagement in any well-established, philosophy academy or related journal publication. This means that Wilber’s intellectual peer group in philosophy have not formally vetted, evaluated, or even commented on Wilber’s philosophical project. Sigh.
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