From: Integral World [newsletter@integralworld.net] Sent: zondag 6 juli 2008 23:01 To: f.visser3@chello.nl Subject: [personal] The Integral Puzzle INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST =========================== http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 246 Amsterdam, July 6th, 2008 WILBER WATCH BLOG: "Integral Politics, Integral Political Party, Integral Political Science" http://wilberwatch.blogspot.com/ THE INTEGRAL PUZZLE: DETERMINING THE INTEGRALITY OF INTEGRAL THEORY - Steven E. Wallis Forget, for a moment, the classic story of three blind men trying to describe an elephant; we are a community of the blind, attempting to collaboratively assemble a jigsaw puzzle. We can find, feel, and describe the corner pieces fairly easily. We can also count the number of pieces by touch. This gives us some vague idea of the shape and size of our puzzle. Trying to fit the pieces together is much more difficult. Someone picks up a piece and tries to describe it to the others. Is it rounded? Pointed? How many sides does it have? Who has another piece that might fit here? Simply put, our community of integral theory thinkers does not have the vocabulary to describe the pieces we hold. That lack of vocabulary can lead to misunderstandings – a classic cause of conflict. Clearly, we need a new way to understand this process of assembling the puzzle we call “integral theory.” Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/wallis.html REBUILDING INTEGRAL BRIDGES: RESPONSE TO FORMAN AND ESBJORN-HARGENS - Frank Visser My recent essay "Assessing Integral Theory", which mentioned in passing—though somewhat provocatively, I confess—the upcoming Integral Theory Conference scheduled for this August, invoked a reply by its two organizers Mark Forman and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens: "The Academic Emergence of Integral Theory". I welcome this reply, because of its tone of open communication and mutual understanding. Here is my brief reply. To my satisfaction, they affirmed some of the concerns I voiced (and have voiced over the years) as to the difficult relatIonship between Wilber and the world of academia—and as a direct consequence of this, the slow acceptance of integral ideas by mainstream science. Also, they shared as their feeling that a critical reflection and application of integral theory is "much needed and arguably far overdue". We are definitely on the same page here. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/visser27.html If you know other people interested in this Integral World Newsletter, please forward this mail to them. Thanks. To SUBSCRIBE to this Integral World Newsletter or change your email address, click here: http://www.integralworld.net/pommo/user/subscribe.php To UPDATE your email address or UNSUBSCRIBE, click here: http://www.integralworld.net/pommo/user/login.php