Integral Theory is a substantial philosophical system that Ken Wilber has gradually developed by analyzing huge amounts of Eastern and Western philosophy. Since Integral Theory itself is complex and Wilber likes to heavily cite, it’s difficult to know where to start. My friend Janette, who I consider an expert in Integral Theory, recommended Integral Psychology, as a reasonable introduction. I read the book a few months ago and discussed it with her, but I forgot to write it up as a blog post until now.

In a nutshell, Integral Theory is a systematic combination of reductionism, systems theory, critical theory (including postmodernism) and transpersonalism: the knowledge of the self taught by religious movements and Eastern philosophy. I was attracted to Integral Theory because, as readers of this blog have probably noted, I champion postmodernism while frequently falling back on modernist analysis.

I say Integral Theory is a “philosophical system”, but I’m actually not sure exactly what it is. Is it making a falsifiable claim about the way the world is? Or is it just a metaphor with greater explanatory potential than alternatives? “If you apply Integral Theory to this problem, you will understand it better than if you apply reductionism.” Without knowing what kind of claim Wilber is making, I don’t know how to evaluate the strength of his claim.

Integral Theory has the modernist concept of progress as a central belief. Specifically, progress of belief systems: Integral Theory is the next step after postmodernism. But postmodernists see progress as specifically modernist and ask “what makes you so sure it’s progress and not just change?” Integral Theory feels like a synthesis of modernism with some premodern and postmodern ideas but it doesn’t step past modernism.

Wilber’s technique is to analyze hundreds of philosophical systems and abstract them to their core structure. For example, he sees all Eastern religions as describing the same basic development of the self. This strikes me as incredibly reductionist and I suspect believers in those specific systems would say that he’s missing a lot of important details.