[MD] The Trouble With Wilber

[david buchanan]

Krimel said to dmb:
You asked where I saw Wilber abusing his sources. I answered regarding the 
particular example with which I am most familiar. I would add that as a 
result of this I seriously do not trust his assessment of any of the people 
he cites. You don't like my answers. I find your responses lame. You can't 
believe I am serious... Ok, I declare this particular horse dead. 
...Flatland is more interesting and more to the point. At least I think so.

dmb says:
Okay, its a dead horse (and I'm neurotic jackass) but let me kick it just 
one more time. I just pulled Wilber's "Integral Psychology" (2000) off my 
shelf. This book would be more to the point if one were specifically 
interested in his synthesis of the various psychologists. Here's a sample, 
Sir Krimelcase...

"Piaget's studies are pivotal, of course. Even with all of their 
shortcomings, Piaget's contributions remain a stunning accomplishment; 
certainly one of the most significant psychological investigations of this 
century. He opened an extraordinary number of avenues of research: following 
the pioneering work of James Mark Baldwin, Piaget demonstrated that each 
level of development has a different worldview, with different perceptions, 
modes of space and time, and moral motivations (discoverries upon which the 
work of researchers from Maslow to Kohlberg to Loevinger to Gilligan, the 
Professor and Mary Anne would depend); he showed that reality is not simply 
given but is in many important ways constructed; his METHODE CLINIQUE 
subjected the unfolding of consciousness to a meticulous investigation, 
which resulted in literally hundreds of novel discovies; ..Few are the 
theorists who can claim a tenth as much.
The major inadequacy of Piaget's system, most scholars now agree, is that 
Piaget generally maintained that cognitive development (conceived as 
logico-mathematical competence) is the only major line of devoplment, 
whereas there is now abundant evidence that numerous different developmental 
lines (such as ego, moral, affective, interpersonal, artistic, etc.) can 
unfold in a relatively independent manner. In the model I am presenting, for 
example, the cognitive line is merely one of some two dozen developmental 
lines, none of which, as lines, can claim preeminence.
But as for the cognitive line itself, Piaget's work is still very 
impressive; moreover, after almost threee decades of intense cross-cultural 
research, the evidence is virtually unanimous:Piaget's stages up to formal 
operational are universal and cross-cultural." 22-23

dmb

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