Toward an Integral Sociology for Perú and Latin America for the World
Including the Good, the Truth
and the Beautiful in the New Sociological Dialogue
By
Giorgio Piacenza Cabrera
There's a sociological intellectual effervercence currently in Perú and Latin America. Generally speaking, it is a series of attempts to leave behind the shackles of modern reductionist thinking and to generate a regional intellectual contribution to sociology in the world. A holistic sense is perceived against the decline of latter-phase global capitalism; an intercultural horizontal dialogue with original wisdom keepers is appreciated and there's greater emphasis upon society as (at least partially) self-generating, autopoietic system and upon intersubjective creation of meaning or constructionism. This seems to be a postmodern response to the world of ideas with a regional interpretation but people's minds may be flexible enough to accomodate something beyond "postmodern." They may be able to recognize the emerging importance of a much less reductionist, much less perspective-exclusivist worldview and model called "Integral Theory."
The intellectual movement tries to generate a creatively adaptive response to today's global structural crisis. Professor Anibal Quijano and Universidad Ricardo Palma are part of this debate. This movement is anti reductionist and -compatibly with postmodern, horizontal thinking- includes "autopoiesis" applied to society as well as intersubjective meaning-making. There's open criticism of the current state of global capitalism and (a related criticism of Eurocentric cultural hegemony and epistemology) includes a criticism of Marxism. Local intellectuals may be flexible enough to recognize Integral Theory as representing the next stage of intellectual discourse and praxis in the world of ideas in general and of Sociology in particular. Their response may add to that model fresh new elements and perspectives.
Steve McIntosh,
inspired by Ken Wilber, Immanuel Kant, Max Weber, Jürgen Habermas and Alfred
North Whitehead presents deep information with some ingredients needed to
refine the creation of what Aníbal Quijano would call an "anthropo-historical
mutation". McIntosh sees that those thinkers recognized something
fundamental behind the movement of change (physical, historical, social,
personal and cultural), something that can include all aspects with which we
understand and value experience and (in a broad sense, according to
"ancient knowledge") all of Life. That "something" could be
quite compatible with a worldview or “cosmovision” of our original peoples which
today is sometimes also called "holistic". Perhaps we need to call it
'principle' and it would be based on a tri-unity which following Plato could also
be called the “Good, Beauty, Truth”; three principles of ontological and
epistemological expression. I think that integrally "knowing" about this
is key for the creation of an emergent Latin American and world sociology which
would be anti-reductionist not only by prioritizing intersubjective-hermeneutic
and systemic ideas (the latter inspired by the systemic vision of Maturana,
Prigogine and others) as is being currently discussed in certain Latin American
forums today in order to leave reductionist thinking its culturally colonizing,
modern-European origin.
Julio Mejía
Navarrete in "Society and Knowledge (p. (70) referring to the type of
"social research that observes subjects who are active, that perform
interpretations of their world" brings to mind sociologists Immanuel
Wallerstein and Max Weber with regard to the integration of the factual reality
with meaning. The reenchantment of the world would claim a social knowledge of
valuation character, i.e. a knowledge that is true and, at the same time, good
and beautiful.
Philosopher Ken
Wilber recognition of "quadrants" (allegedly Ken is the most translated
non-fiction author from the United States) represent any event, experience, or
thing (in other words, any "holon")
under the always correlated and inseparable aspects and perspectives of the subjective (inner and individual), the objective (outer and individual), the intersubjective (inner and plural) and
the interobjective (outer and
plural) which are a potential source of disclosure, knowledge, interpretation,
experience and theory making in the emerging post post-modern intellectual
discourse to understand Life and regenerate philosophy under patterns that
would no longer be exclusivist but truly intercultural, timeless and universal.
Well, these four ways of understanding "reality" (which also are four
ways reality expresses) can be summarized in the quadrants relating to the
Truth, Beauty and Good.
The subjective
quadrant would correspond to the value category of Beauty" and of the
intimate-personal knowledge which is emotional and of “the heart.” The objective
quadrant (used in classical science which measures external objects) and the
interobjective (Science systemic or organizational systems linking objects)
would correspond to the evaluative category of "Truth" and to the
appreciation or type of knowledge of the intellect, the logos and the
correlation between our models and the thing outside which is empirically
observable. The intersubjective quadrant (cultural, hermeneutic) would
correspond to the evaluative category of the "Good," which is of
Justice in the interpersonal relationship of the common agreement.
While (already incorporating
the intersubjective and the interobjective to transcend the theoretical canons of
reductionist modern-european pertaining to quantitative analysis) Peruvian and
latin American sociology (following the contributions of Aníbal Quijano,
Inmanuel Wallerstein and others) already recognize more aspects without which
reality and perception of reality would be incomplete. However, they lack the
integral assessment that recognizes and includes the importance and the
contribution of all the "quadrants" that is, of the three aspects of
"Beauty", "Truth" and the "Good".
Today, leaving
behind rigid theoretical models which were initially (since the 19th Century)
focused in the 'objective' quadrant we live in the recognition of quadrants
according to postmodern thought. The importance of inter subjectivity and of systems
in the study and the sociological endeavor is being now recognized. It is a
consciousness aperture which Wilber would call "green" and it would
be related to emphasize the aspect of equality or horizontality among communicants.
It is a "holistic" consciousness manifested in social science when the
importance of "relationship" is privileged. Systemic theories (which
normally focus on the relationship between objects) are also more recognized
because they serve to understand relationships of autopoiesis applied to
society.
The next step to
actually withdraw from the exclusivity of reductionism and to give the cultural
and epistemological "descolonializador (decolonizing) movement" a
more complete creative base will be to recognize all of the
"quadrants" and their internal coordination by a common order. It will
mean not privileging one or more methods from a school of thought or
theoretical model generated from a particular quadrant perspective over others.
It will also mean recognizing the evolving capacity of personal consciousness capacity
to be able to entertain and identify its creative work with themes, values and
(mental and physical) objects with an ego identification which not only is “world
centric,” global or planetary (initially proper to the modern mindset and
furthermore of the postmodern) but also transystemic and eventually “kosmos
centric.”
Sources
McIntosh,
Steve (2007). “The Natural Theology of Beauty, Truth and Goodness”. http://www.integralworld.net/mcintosh4.html
Mejía Navarrete, Julio (2009). “Sociedad y Conocimiento”.
Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Universidad Nacional
Mayor de San Marcos.
