The four quadrants of being give dimension to the depth revealed through the Great Chain of Being. Consequently they give dimension to any analysis that is based on them. This simple concept is the backbone of the integral analysis that pervades this book. The broader our worldview the more of the four quadrants our analysis will cover.
Wilber takes the ideas of depth
in the Kosmos one step further than most, pointing out that the universe
exists in relation between four primary modes of experience. He calls
this the "four quadrants of being" or "four quadrants of
knowledge," explaining that individuals and collectives both have
an interior and an exterior aspect. This then gives us the four quadrants
of Interior Individual, Interior Collective, Exterior Individual, and
Exterior Collective. "Thus we have four major quadrants or four major
aspects to each and every holon."(i) The Interior Individual is the
intentional or psychological realm, the world of "I." The Interior
Collective is the cultural realm, or the world of "We." The
Exterior realms are the physical world of "It," the Exterior
Individual being of the body, and the Exterior Collective being of the
environment and societies. This "It" realm is the one that science
has traditionally focused on because its facts are easier to verify. Additionally
each of these quadrants is cross-correlated at equivalent levels, the
levels of being, "…so that emotions 'go with' limbic systems
and concepts 'go with' the neocortex…"(ii) Wilber's chart of
the Four Quadrants makes this all clear.
©Ken Wilber, 2000
Wilber's system is a truly integral approach to the Kosmos, incorporating the psychological and spiritual realms with the cultural, social, physical, environmental, and biological. The only real problem with his chart is that while it is easy to see the connections between holons at their respective levels, it is difficult to visualize the connections between holons at different levels, in the same or different quadrants. For instance, we can see the correlation between plants and ecosystems, but seeing the connection between plants and cultures is a little more abstract. It is possible to visualize the four quadrants as a four-sided cone, but this is still troublesome for most people. Never the less it is an extraordinarily powerful tool for examining the world around us, and one that is deceptively simply to use. Essentially, Wilber is saying that all of the things we experience have a personal, cultural, social, and physical dimension. Moreover, he is saying that any analysis that fails to take these for dimensions, and their attendant depths, into account will be strikingly partial and incomplete, however much truth it may contain. For example, and analysis of poverty and welfare in the United States that focuses on only one of the four quadrants will necessarily present a lopsided view of reality. An integral analysis of poverty will include a personal assessment of the interior mental states those who are poor (as well as those who interact with them), an analysis determining how local, regional, and national culture impacts poverty, an investigation into the ways in which the dominate social structures and programs both support and combat poverty, and finally a raw statistical analysis of the empirical data of poverty, from housing and nutrition, to the relationship between poverty and crime, to the cost of government programs. An integral analysis of the world, based in an Integral worldview, and using the four quadrants of being as a basis for investigation, is one of the primary goals of this book.
Footnotes
i) Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, p.127.
ii) Ibid. p. 128.