[.ca] Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (ISBN 1570620725)

4 Stars for effort and creativity, but flawed in my eyes:
Hi there... now first let me say this is not usually the kind of books I read... about "spirituality" . I must say while I disagree with Mr. Wilber at least he is making an effort to use his mind to do something constructive, even if I believe it could be used for better things. My critique of him will be to question the very premise of his goals. Which is...is it necessary to bring religion or mysticism together with science to bring meaning back into life? Are we really experiencing a "flatland"? A world devoid of meaning in the flux of time? I believe we are, in some sense, but I don't believe it is necassary to bring religion or spirituality that is "other worldly" back to fill this void. I first off... think religion is not a good basis for morality. For instance... look throughout history and see what it has created, all reigion, be it Christianity or Buddhism has all taught the value of sacrifice of oneself to a higher power. Be it church or the "one". Now, look how much of social theory, from the Christian oppressive state, to Socialism, to Communnism all taught the same. Nietzsche was the first great philosopher to question the ethics of altriusm. So that is my first critique, that value should not be something devorced from this world...or an individual human being. Buddhism does not even believe in good and evil. But they refused to resist the evil of communnism, to fight for freedom. Even though they acknowledge it as evil, their method of thinking is against violence. Even self defense? After all,,,, they will be born again. The problem is if they don't believe in good and evil, why do they have any morals? The reason is... it is impossible in life to not judge or make value distinctions in ones mind. After all, this is the heart of decision itself, and the human mind needs this ( value distinction and cognition, conception) to survive. It's funny that Mr. Wilber says the bad part of post-moderism was that it focused on a horrible present, and looked to some nonexistent past for beauty. Or pre modern as he says, and that modernism is what "wiped" this blessed spirit out. First, modernity did wipe it out, but the answer is to not go back to religion to find meaning. Meaning is a human thing, truly ..the world is meaningless. But that isn't such a bad thing, it means we as individuals must give it meaning, that this is our only time here to do so. No reicarnation, because there is no proof. All of this in my opinion is escapism. People want so badly to believe that there is some great "cosmic power" watching over them, that life has meaning, when all of this is just a construction of the human mind, and it's gropping emotionalism of wanting certainty. Also...human beings never ending want of belief in themselves and their lives, and knowing how hard this is to obtain... they put their faith in the cosmic "god" or "universe". Look at all the great things science has done for this world, and also " the comodification of people" which he blames on " science" on "capitalism"... this has done more for the human race then any monk sitting meditating, or any spiritual guru, or religion. This is where meaning is... to find the beauty of the human mind, to advance our race by lifting ourselves out of the dark, embracing science, as the only thing that can help us. Also... what Mr. Wilber calls " modernity" I call freedom. It is freedom that sets the human race on fire, and allows individuals to lift one another up, with wealth, with money, with knowledge. All people working for their rational self interest not " sacrificing for the "geist" or any other universal "spirit" When I say the world is meaningless... don't take that to mean I'm a nihilist. I believe in good and evil, but it is only in relation to human beings that it has any meaning. And it is only in relation to the world that human beings will find it. All in all... I find Mr. Wilber to be a very , very bright man, and very interesting. But I do disagree with many points. I did find some of his critques to be quite well done...and I was impressed by his wide display of knowledge. But that's the problem, when writing like this about so many topics...one is bound to fall down in some areas.

It will blow your paradigm- over and over again...:
Ken Wilber's "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution", is my favorite book. And that isn't a title I award lightly. SES is quite possibly the first attempt at putting together a syncretic, evolutionary worldview since Hegel's "Phenomenology". In an age when truth has been declared dead and multiple perspectives rule the roost, where philosophy lives in the shadow of Nietzsche's madman, Wilber, in this striking volume, challenges post-modernity. Unlike other challengers, arguing for a retreat to conservatism and cynical (or mythic-literal) traditionalism, Ken proposes a different idea- we need to integrate the strengths of Post-modernity (a recognition of the other, a bird's eye view of ideology, and a profound social and ecological awareness), Modernity (scientific rationality, empiricism, democracy), and Pre-modernity (religious wisdom and cultural bounty) into one complete, "integral" package. Sounds like a tough mission for any thinker to take on. Of course, Wilber- living outside the academia, blending his scholastic persuits with Zen practice, and doing his best to live his own philosophy- is no ordinary thinker. In the 551 pages of text (not including extensive endnotes and bibliography), Wilber essentially lays out his "theory of everything". Based in the psychological work of Freud, Piaget, Kohlberg, Maslow, Jung, Gebser, and other thinkers, Wilber first constructs a socio-psychological map of civilization's evolution to date, and shows how it integrates with hard scientific data. Dividing the world into subject and object, Wilber shows how modern empiricism has attempted to colonize the subjective sphere by trying to render it irrelevant- a condition he refers to as "flatland". After providing this analysis, Wilber takes a gander at the cognitive structures still lying in our future, through several examples of such advanced minds- Emerson, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, Ramana Maharshi, and Meister Eckhart. After that, Wilber takes on the disease of the Post-modern world and it's primary culprits- a dissociation between what he refers to as the "Eco" camps (romantic, back-to-nature, web-of-life, holistic) and the "Ego" camps (rationalistic, modernistic, atomistic, disassociating the mind and body), and how these two contradictory (and self-contradictory) worldviews are becoming extremely destructive- in political discourse, academia, and the world in general. Of course, as has been said before about SES, it's very hard to sum up in a simple outline- the book itself is practically a 500+ page outline. The main thrust of the work is to construct a coherent philosophy for the 21st century, and thus Wilber spends little time on details (which will be covered further in the next two volumes, Kosmic Karma and Creativity and The Spirit of Post-Modernity). But, that weakness aside, Wilber has proven himself the finest philosophical mind of the early 21st century, and the first great step beyond Foucault, Derrida, and the rest of the post-modern mess. Although SES is an excellent book, it's not light reading, and readers without a background in philsophy, psychology, or cultural studies should take a look at a simpler introduction to Wilber's work, such as A Brief History of Everything- the condensed, more conversational version of SES.

Brilliant!:
Ken Wilber is probably one of the most brilliant modern thinkers of our time. Among all of the books he has written, this one is "The One" that really explains it all. What an inspiring piece of work! He brings together work in philosophy, spirituality, psychology, sociology, biology, physics and all other fields of study and convincingly explains that it all fits together if we look at it through this framework that he has developed. If there is a philosophical book you should read, this is the one to pick up. If you are not ready for such a comprehensive detailed discussion, read the other absolutely incredible book called "The Ever-transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. The content is very similar but everything is explained in a much simpler (and shorter) way. Both of these books really deserve some mega-awards!

worth it, but a slog:
Fine ideas. Really helps tie together a lot of conceptual loose ends in a useful package. But, man, does he need a new editor, or what? Wilber rarely uses one or two words when twenty will do, and makes every point at least six differnt times. The annoyance factor is pretty high, given the effort required to read this, and do it justice.

Great:
This is one of the most incredible books you will ever read. It is the book that Wilber first presents his four quadrants and continues with his hierarchal model. It will take time to read it but so what.