This article examines ethical frameworks across levels of human development and via the quadrants of the AQAL model. The ethical line is examined as it progresses through stages of development, paying special attention to the role of the felt sense in the determination of right action. The role of unconscious forces, particularly the felt sense of disgust, is examined as the basis of moral intuition. Integral Ethics includes the ethical framework of the previous stages and an examination of personal motivation for right action. By inquiring into the unconscious drives that move us, we may begin to recognize the cultural prejudices and excessive survival drives that can influence our determination of right action.
AQAL and the Practice of Law
Mark FischlerFor many the practice of law is a dissatisfying experience. By providing a more comprehensive, AQAL vision for the practice of law, I speculate that lawyers can gain more satisfaction and meaning from their profession.
Responding to Suffering and Evil: Integral Principles
Roger WalshSuffering and evil challenge us all, but several principles may help Integral practitioners to respond effectively. These include appreciating the role that unrecognized, limited perspectives (and corresponding worldviews) play in creating suffering and evil, and learning to recognize and release such limitations into more integral stances. Doing this skillfully requires taking up effective, authentic psychological and contemplative disciplines, and especially the disciplines of awakening service or karma yoga, whose central elements are described.
Wicked Problems: Bringing Wisdom and Compassion to Immigration
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosImmigration matters have been viewed by many as a “wicked problem” — implying a complexity that has sets of values in tension, something societies have dealt with since the very dawn of civilization itself. Watch as Magdalena, Mark, and Corey offer their own ideas and reflect on the reasons this issue has become one of the central fault lines in the culture wars.
Criminology Needs an Integral Vision
Integral LifeThis article supports the claim that there is substantial agreement within the discipline that criminology (and criminal justice) is in need of a change in approach. This article maintains that a framework is needed to organize the contributions and partial truths of existing disciplinary knowledge. It is argued that criminology needs an “orienting perspective” or a “meta-theory.” The article proposes that the Integral model provides a functional and apposite framework for addressing these problems. An in-depth, AQAL-based justification for this proposition is provided.
The Meaning of Integral Criminology and Criminal Justice
Integral LifeThis document was produced on the basis of a meeting that took place in March, 2001. There are some revisions reflecting activities and developments that have occurred since that meeting. Our intention is to suggest, in an introductory way, how the Integral approach could be applied to contemporary issues in criminology and criminal justice. We explore issues of the War on Drugs, the death penalty, and juvenile justice as illustrations.
Integral Correctional Education
Integral LifeThis article is part one of an overview of Integral Correctional Education. It briefly introduces salient aspects of the field of correctional education, defines correctional education, introduces the Integral model, and outlines the historical periods of correctional education practice. A discussion of some core principles of correctional education is followed by some problems that afflict inmate students, correctional educators, and the communities they serve.
The Morality of Meat
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIf God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat?
The Darth Vader Move
Ken WilberThe brighter the light, the darker the shadow. The “Darth Vader move” is what happens when someone with an exceptionally high level of development uses the skills and capacities of that level for purposes generally deemed to be “wrong” — often the result of a highly developed cognitive intelligence combined with a poorly developed moral intelligence (Nazi scientists being the classic example). What happens when our higher angels get hijacked by our lowest demons? What is the cause of the Darth Vader move, and how can we prevent ourselves from being seduced by the Dark Side of the Force?
Basic Moral Intuition: The Greatest Depth for the Greatest Span
Ken Wilber and Gail HochachkaEveryone has a general intuition of morality, but each person has to actually bring it into practice and make it relevant in one’s own unique context. How can this understanding help us make better choices for ourselves and for the world? Listen to find out!
Living an Ethical Life
Roger WalshHow do you live your life free of regret? How do you take the wisdom of the Integral vision and exercise it in your day to day life? How do you move beyond the blame and guilt that so often festers in the basement of your psyche? And why can it be so hard to simply be good? Roger discusses this and more in his presentation on Integral Ethics, delivered at the 2010 Integral Theory Conference.
Integral Ethics: How to Practice an Integral Life
Roger Walsh and Ken WilberRoger Walsh and Ken Wilber discuss one of the most important — and least discussed — aspects of integral practice: how to live an ethical life.