Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm

I purchased this book solely for one purpose: to read Wilber's explanation of proof within different domains of experience. Wilber does a fantastic job of discussing proof within the context of empirical observations (science), cognitive meaning structures (culture), and spiritual experiences. Humans have different equipment for apprehending each domain of reality, have different "eyes," so-to-speak.Wilber discusses the process by which proof is defined and demonstrates that proof extends beyond simple physical observation as understood through science. No single eye sees all of reality; therefore, no single eye is qualified to make explanations regarding what is observed through other eyes.Can you prove the meaning of Shakespeare using science, asks Wilber? Spiritual awareness can no more "prove" the sky is blue than science can "prove" spirit exists. To use another analogy, the eye cannot prove the existence of sound, nor the ear prove the existence of sight. These are wholly different domains.This book is not about the integral model per se, which makes it accessible to all people. I enjoyed Chapter Two on the problem of proof immensely. The rest of the book was great, albeit dense and on occasion slow. However, by not focusing on the integral model, this is a great book for extending the concepts of integral to real-world situations without using special language. Simply great.

I have read several CRITIQUES of the "scientistic" worldview (i.e. reductionistic materialism, or the view that consciousness, morality, and spiritual life are just illusions, and nothing is real except matter and energy).But chapter one of this book contains the first presentation of a coherent ALTERNATIVE view/epistemology that I have read. He succienctly argues that there are three basic realms of DIRECT experience and knowledge: the physical realm (which we collectively test by the scientific method); the rational/mental realm (which we collectively test by logic); and the spiritual realm (which we collectively test by spiritual & contemplative practices).His view takes all three realms seriously, and so he avoids the frequent tendency within this debate to derogate either science or the spiritual life (and to also fail to discuss where logic fits in.)I would have liked much more detail on this, however, and he does not even go into where morality and emotion fit. Overall, however, I found it very helpful in just being able to coherently think about reality in a non-scientistic way, something that mere critiques of scientism do not offer.HIGHLY recommended.

This book is Wilber at his best. It's a must have if you have any interest in spirituality and its relation to "science". Also get Wilber's book The Marriage of Sense and Soul", a more in-depth treatment of the same spirit-science topic relationship.

Epistemology, the study of what can be known, has been all but abandoned in the modern era of philosophy. Beginning with Kant's revelation of the limits of what can be known by rational consciousness, the (rationally based) project of Western philosophy gave up on its prospects for ultimate knowledge. Since it couldn't see beyond the capacities of the rational mind and the realms of the real that higher levels of consciousness could disclose, it resigned itself to the more limited task of evaluating "empirical" data, that is, data disclosed by the senses. Only that which could be disclosed by the senses was deemed "really real," even though the language, mathematics and logic that were used to process the empirical data are not themselves disclosed by the senses.In "Eye to Eye," Ken Wilber applies his spectrum of consciousness model to epistemology. Each of the realms in the spectrum (grossly simplified as body, mind, spirit,) according to Wilber, can be investigated in accordance with its own nature, or with the appropriate "eye." That is, the "eye of flesh," the "eye of mind," and the "eye of contemplation." Investigation of one realm with the eye of another produces, at best, a limited, or representational, understanding (as Kant pointed out with respect to the eye of mind), and at worst, what Wilber calls "category error." Attempting to investigate the realm of spirit, for example, with the "eye of flesh," that is, the eye that perceives only sensory phenomena, will not yield real knowledge of the realm of spirit, which is not disclosed to sensory perception. This results in errors like "empirical" science, which purports to recognize only sensory phenomena, declaring the realm of spirit to be nonexistent or at least non-verifiable, because it can't be "seen." Well, it can't be seen unless you look with the right "eye." Wilber explains why it is critical that the proper "eye," and the corresponding modes of investigation and verification, are used to investigate, and establish validity claims in, the various realms in the spectrum of consciousness. More importantly, he says that all these realms can indeed be known, and that the validity of such knowledge can be tested and verified by the same "scientific" method now applied to the material and rational realms, provided the proper eye, and the proper verification protocols, are used. This consitutes nothing less than a breakthrough in the logjam of modern epistemology.Wilber builds on this core material by exploring some of the promises and failures of the "New Age" movement and presents an outline of his concept of structure, stage and self, the mechanics of the evolutionary development of self. This volume also presents seminal material on what may be Wilber's most original and influential contribution to thought, the "pre/trans fallacy." Wilber says that many thinkers confuse pre-rational stages with trans-rational stages because both are non-rational. This results in either elevating the lower stages (babies are enlightened, hunter/gatherers were more "at one" with the universe, etc.) or diminishing the higher realms (enlightened sages are schizophrenic, confusion of higher realms with repressed lower ones, etc.)This compounds the likelihood of using the wrong eye to investigate particularly the higher realms of the real."Eye to Eye" is probably not the book to begin with if you have not read any of Ken Wilber's work. It is rather technical and does not contain a very good overview of his thought system, which may make it more difficult to fully appreciate this book. I recommend "A Brief History of Everything" as the best Wilber primer, and Wilber himself recommends the new "A Theory of Everything." However, "Eye to Eye" is indispensible to more dedicated students of Wilber's work and, I would argue, to any serious student of epistemology.

A superb book