Ken Wilber's Four Quadrants: Part I - Interior Individual

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PART I - UPPER LEFT Is it possible to write a book that combines all the thoughts of humanity so far? Ken Wilber thinks so. He separates human understanding into 4 quadrants. Let's look at quadrant 1...

Firstly, two distinctions: Inner vs outer Individual vs collective Combinations of these 4 give us the four quadrants Quadrant 1 = interior individual What does that mean in plain English?

Interior individual includes: • Subjective experiences • Thoughts • Emotions These are experiences from within. We do not need to look at the brain to understand these (that's part II) Is analysis useful here?

Yes, and no. Mainly no. ❌ Objective scientific analysis ✔️ Subjective interpretation We cannot locate 'sadness' in the brain. To understand 'sadness', we have to speak to the individual. We have to engage in a dialogue with them. We must INTERPRET the meaning...

We cannot reduce 'sadness' down to chemical imbalances That is an important part of the picture, but it is not the whole picture. We need to embrace the integrity of what it FEELS LIKE to be sad. Scientific analysis can come later on...

Instead, we need to: • Introspect • Engage in a dialogue • Interview and interpret We cannot know what others experience without first asking them Just as you cannot cut open my brain and see my values. You need to speak to me to figure them out

I am a subject to communicate with. I am not an object to study. That is the motto of Quadrant 1 - the interior individual.

"What does it mean?" "How can I interpret this depth?" "What does this value/emotion mean?" These are great starter questions

Is this all that there is to humans? Interpretation and no object fact? Absolutely not. And that's what part II is about - objective individual behaviours and processes