Lovely (and true and good) reflections here, Jonathan. My favorite notion is actually in your first note: “epistemic proprioception.” It suggests knowing how to dance through the catacomb of ideas with proper pacing and care, not necessarily knowing everything but knowing enough to get where you’d like to go without knocking over and breaking anything.
On the three transcendentals, I cannot help on this Easter Sunday but to notice the analogical resonance with the Paschal Triduum. Friday is the True, the inevitable suffering that comes with finite embodied life. Saturday is the Beautiful, the pregnant silence between darkness and first light. Sunday is the Good, the overflowing revelation of the nature of the anthropocosmos.
Thank you, I really enjoyed this post. It got me thinking about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s story of The Three Sisters in her book Braiding Sweetgrass.
Drawing on indigenous wisdom and botany, she relates the tale and then shows how it explains the reciprocal relationships between companion plants: beans, corn and squash that are traditionally planted together and eaten together. From here she expands to consider familial relationships and broader societal values that intertwine and are mutually beneficial.
I love the way that as she explains, she models so that her storytelling combines truth, beauty and goodness.
Jonathan -- although Wilber doesn't have much to say about threes and fourness, another integral theorist named Steve McIntosh does in his book Integral Spirituality
https://www.stevemcintosh.com/. It is also worth noting, perhaps, that as complexity and leadership scholar Mike McMaster (The Intelligence Advantage; Organizing for Complexity) asserts, complexity requires a minimum of four variables.
Aloha sir... I don't buy that words as 'one-dimensional things' (even in consort with each other) can ever point unfailingly at any of the threenesses that I experience Jonathan. There is always the dilemma that we all Project meaning onto our worlds...
I did a U of T doctoral degree – up to my committee looking at what I thought was The Thing. But no... They couldn't get it. I am better off without that though. I have recognized the Guardrails of Normality per 2025. Our world has as much use for words to kill as to heal. The Binarity can't be swallowed by a trinity in any way,. The threeness needs to account for how and where the killing field of the Binary exists. Studying on my own since 1983 (and that doctoral stint) as a psychotherapist, I see Daoism's arcane and esoteric thought as better than those three 'nice' words. Sorry.
Here's Laozi: "Dao produces unity; unity produces duality; duality produces trinity; trinity produces all things. All things bear the negative principle (Yin) and embrace the positive principle (Yang). Immaterial vitality, the third principle (Chi), makes them harmonious."14
~ Laozi ~
As a form of eco-therapist I see that as far more useful.
To me I see that Laozi was actually buttressed by da Vinci...
“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind:
Study the science of art. Study the art of science.
Develop your senses – especially learn how to see.
Realize that every thing connects to everything else.”
To elaborate on the Laozi quote, in the Daoist system, Three represents the trinity of yang (Shen/Spirit), yin (Jing/Essence), and their integration, the T'ai Chi (Qi/Life-force energy). These are considered the "Three Treasures" (san bao) of the universe.
My fingers :>) slipped there... my point was that we all (I have found/experienced) project our own unique meanings onto "our words" as also onto "other's words" – as well as onto the bigger units of sentences ad so on..
My conversation with the o3 min version of ChatGpt on Mar 2 2025
(What is very interesting here is how bluntly the difference is highlighted with monothesism's lack of a middle factor...)
Barry: "What elements of 'threeness' are there within the majority of 'religious, spiritual frameworks' (with examples please) and, in contrast, are there any with no significant place for threeness?"
Reasoned about threeness in spiritual frameworks for 6 seconds
Across many religious and spiritual traditions, the number three is used as a powerful symbol to express unity in diversity, the balance of forces, or different aspects of the divine. Here are some notable examples:
Frameworks Emphasizing Threeness
• Christianity – The Trinity:
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—while remaining one God. This triune concept is central to mainstream Christian theology, encapsulating the complexity and unity of the divine.
• Hinduism – The Trimurti:
In Hinduism, the Trimurti consists of three major deities: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer or transformer). These three aspects together represent the cyclical nature of the universe and the various processes that sustain it.
• Neopaganism and Wicca – The Triple Goddess:
In many modern Pagan and Wiccan traditions, threeness is embodied in the Triple Goddess archetype, which manifests as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. This triadic figure represents the stages of life, fertility, and the cyclical nature of existence.
• Ancient Egyptian Religion – Divine Triads:
In various periods of ancient Egyptian history, gods were often worshipped in triads. For example, the Theban triad featured Amun (a creator deity), his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu. These groupings underscored complementary roles and the interconnectedness of divine forces.
• Buddhism – The Three Jewels:
While not describing a deity, Buddhism emphasizes three foundational elements: the Buddha (the enlightened teacher), the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community of practitioners). This triad offers a framework for spiritual practice and guidance.
Frameworks with Little Emphasis on Threeness
• Islam – Absolute Monotheism (Tawhid):
Islamic theology is grounded in the concept of Tawhid, the absolute oneness of God. Unlike Christian theology, Islam explicitly rejects any division or multiplicity in God’s nature. The idea of a triune deity is seen as incompatible with its strict monotheistic principles.
• Judaism – Singular Monotheism:
Similarly, mainstream Judaism centers on a single, indivisible God. While there are rich traditions and multifaceted descriptions of God's attributes in Jewish texts, there is no doctrinal basis for a triadic form of the divine akin to the Christian Trinity.
Conclusion
Threeness in religious symbolism often serves to capture complex ideas—such as creation, preservation, and transformation in Hinduism or the multifaceted nature of divinity in Christianity—by grouping related aspects into a unified whole. In contrast, traditions like Islam and Judaism, which emphasize an uncompromising singularity of the divine, do not adopt a triadic structure in their core theology. This difference highlights how numerical symbolism can shape the conceptual framework and identity of a religious tradition.
I agree that Wilber doesn't discuss the trade-offs between threeness and fourness in much detail; instead he just basically equates them. Your footnote #9 provides a good summary. The best discussion of it that I've found is in his book The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion (1998): "...the Big Three, which are just a shorthand version of the four quadrants."
In chapter 4 (Modernity: Dignity and Disaster), he brings in art, science, and morals, which are then associated with The Good, The True, and the Beautiful, and then he equates them with I, WE, and IT (pp. 47-52).
Quote from page 48:
"But with the rise of modernity, the speres of art, science, and morals were clearly differentiated, and this marked the dignity of modernity because each sphere could now pursue its own truth without violence and domination from the others. You could look through Galileo's telescope without being hauled before the Inquisition. You could paint the human body in a natural setting without being tried for heresy against God and Pope. You could espouse the universal moral rights of humans without being charged with treason against King or Queen."
In chapter 5 (The Four Corners of the Known Universe) he brings in the quadrants, and on pages 74-75 he equates them with "The Big Three: I, WE, and IT." 'Worth quoting at length,' as the saying goes:
"We saw that the core of modernity was the widespread differentiation of art, morals, and science (or I, WE, and IT). But if we now look at the four quadrants, we find that they correlate exactly with these domains. The Upper-Left quadrant is described in I-language, the Lower-Left quadrant is described in we-language, and both of the Right-Had quadrants, because they are objective exteriors, are described in it-language.
And so, in something of a surprise turn, we have arrived back at the "Big Three" cultural values spheres of art, morals, and science; the Beautiful, the Good, and the True; I, WE, and IT...
I refer to these three value spheres as the "Big Three" because they are three of the most significant of modernity's differentiations, destined to play a crucial role in so many areas of life. This is not simply my own idea. The Big Three are recognized by an influential number of scholars. They are Sir Karl Popper's three worlds: subjective (I), cultural (WE), and objective (IT). They are Habermas's three validity claims: subjective sincerity (I), intersubjective justness (WE), and objective truth (IT). They are Plato's Beautiful, Good, and True. They even show up in Buddhism as Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (the I, the It, and the We of the Real, as will soon become obvious).
And of enormous historical importance, the Big Three showed up in Kant's immensely influential trilogy: Critique of Pure Reason (objective science), Critique of Practical Reason (morals), and Critique of Judgement (aesthetic judgment and art). Dozens of examples could be given, but that is the general picture of the Big Three, which are just a shorthand version of the four quadrants.
The fact that the four quadrants (or simply the Big Three) ...show up cross-culturally and nearly universally...ought to tell us something, ought to tell us that they are etched deeply into the being of the Kosmos, that they are the warp and woof of the fabric of the Real, announcing abiding truths about our world, about its insides and outsides, about its individual and communal forms. Ought to tell us, that is, that we are simply looking at the four faces of the Kosmos, the four corners of the known world, and none of them apparently will go away, no matter how tightly we close our eyes."
Thanks. Useful. It’s very curious, right? He doesn’t seem to grasp that he is being read as a purveyor of foundational truths and meta-theoretical axioms and he shifts between three and four as if they are *obviously* the same thing, without really explaining what might be lost by IT and ITS being collapsed.
Yes, what might be lost by IT and ITS being collapsed? Great question! I believe the Integral community has given short shrift to the ITS quadrant, which I tried to partially address in my 2015 presentation at the Integral Theory Conference (Navigating the Transition to a World in Energy Descent) when I asked "Where is Energy in AQAL?"
Issues related to Energy, Ecology, and Economics, and the need for integration of these disciplines are too rarely addressed. Instead the fallacy of misplaced concreteness tends to be applied to the given structure of "the techno-economic base." Attention has now shifted a bit, but we're very late in the game.
Jonathan with the help of Claude 3: I drafted an essay that I hope complements your investigation into Threeness with my recollections three-body interactions in chemistry.
The essay:
Establishes the three-body problem in physics and chemistry as foundational concepts
Explores catalysis as a sophisticated version of the third-body principle
Maps partially these chemical concepts onto the three-ness of systemd-souls-society.
~ Examines briefly how "catalytic presence" functions in human systems
~ Draws parallels between chemical and social equilibrium
~ Concludes with reflections on the generative power of three-element systems.
According to what I can remember from one of Wilber's books, we (or maybe Western Worldviews) focus too much on the external, and the Lower quadrant (ITS) is where most of the action is. My twist for my four quadrants was to change the Natural world (matter, resources, energy... i.e. The vital Hand), from the Lower Right Quadrant to the Upper Right Quadrant and make it normative, i.e. in some way "sacred". Through the semantic twist that Wilber wrote in the Upper Right Quadrant "Behavioural", I said that our "Behaviour" to the Upper Right quadrant (Natural Environment) is our key principle to be alive, so the other three quadrants are pointed to it, normatively. In some way, although graphically, my four quadrants seem similar, there is a "bias" to the "Natural World" and just putting the "human being" outside of that "Natural World" (yes, with some anthropocentric nuances), I was able to write my Master's thesis on Sustainability with that "normative" approach and answer the question of my research: How could we survive?
Had to actively stop myself from daydreaming about Aristotle sending over spies and getting foiled by your spies, who obviously were superior spies by virtue of time travelling.
The circle was the divine geometry to the Greeks and Pi (~3) describes its ratios
The square is the divine + one (the mother, Mary) to describe the world - the union of the soul and spirit; also the cardinal directions.
Mandala is a circle in a square; rotunda; an aid to revelation which is a psychological event
3+4=7 the mystical & sacred seven; the seven days of creation, seven chakras, seven heavens in Islam, and the seven deadly sins; also the visible planets + sun & moon.
According to Wagensberg's aphorism the order was Beauty, Truth, Good.
"In the race towards humanity, first came the useful and the useless, then the beautiful and the ugly, then the true and the false, and finally the good and the bad." - Jorge Wagensberg
Then another one indirectly points out our present moments with the Fakes, Post-truth and so on and probably fits in my idea of the importance of Ethical Media (including social networks and AI) through my Tethraedrom of the Planetary Wellbeing Society. Without that light of the ethical media, the other three components will be extinguished, I.e.
"Curiously, in order for the logic of good and bad to progress, the logic of true and false must first progress." - Jorge Wagensberg
... and he has probably 20 more insightful aphorisms about beauty; in this one, he follows his rule of why Beauty was the first one.
"The ability to appreciate beauty is a pre-selection that prepares the mind for its ability to understand."
Finally, because I'm a lover of triads and tetrads, I was inspired by Wilber's four quadrants, although I changed one of them. On the other side in my research about Wilber, it seems that he "copied" or "being inspired" by E.F. Schumacher's 4 quadrants from his book “A Guide for the Perplexed” (1977)
Learned yesterday that the Latin "sapere" which is the root of Sapiens, where we usually take that as meaning "wise," was also for the Romans "taste." Was wisdom for the Romans closer to aesthetics than to rationality?
I suspect you'd find value in the lead article in the current Journal of Consciousness Studies, "A Neuroscientific Image of Human Beings Worth Standing Up For: The Nested Assumptions of 'You are (NOT) Your Brain'" by Pieter F. Craffert. He touches on a trinity, by way of processes and holism, clearly explicating a paradigm shift (words he doesn't use) in framing the location of consciousness, which has been gaining momentum in the last several decades among scientists and philosophers. (The article is more readable than the title, perhaps.) I suspect this is the shift you're looking for, if it may be more broadly accomplished.
Jonathan with the help of Claude 3: I drafted an essay that I hope complements your investigation into Threeness with my recollections three-body interactions in chemistry. It is fifty years since I graduated in organic and inorganic chemistry.
The essay:
Establishes the three-body problem in physics and chemistry as foundational concepts
Explores catalysis as a sophisticated version of the third-body principle
Maps partially these chemical concepts onto the three-ness of systemd-souls-society.
~ Examines briefly how "catalytic presence" functions in human systems
~ Draws parallels between chemical and social equilibrium
~ Concludes with reflections on the generative power of three-element systems.
I thought I'd just share a symbol that seems to have cropped up quite a lot recently. This example is a wooden roof boss at St Andrews church, South Lawton, Dartmoor.
I agree with Dostoyevsky that “Beauty will save the world”! John O’Donohue‘s book on Beauty, would be a good primer for Perspectiva’s Realization Fellowship participants. He says in the introduction to that book that when “the mechanical mind dominates, the habit of gentleness dies out. We become blind: nature is rifled, politics eschews vision and becomes the obsessive servant of economics, and religion opts for the mathematics of system and forgets its mystical flame. Instead of true leadership which would be the servant of vision and imagination, we have systems of puppetry which are carefully constructed and manipulated from elsewhere. We never know who we are dealing with; hidden agendas operate to deepen our insecurity and persuade us to be hopeless.” And this was written 23 years ago!
I will quote John O’Donahue further because I think his wisdom is directly relevant to this moment. In the paragraph that follows the previous quote, he says, “Yet constant struggle leaves us tired and empty. Our struggle for reform needs to be tempered and balanced with a capacity for celebration. When we lose sight of beauty, our struggle becomes tired and functional. When we expect and engage the Beautiful, a new fluency is set free within us and between us. The heart becomes rekindled and our lives brighten with unexpected courage. It is courage that restores hope to the heart. In our day-to-day lives, we often show courage without realizing it. However, it is only when we are afraid that courage becomes a question. Courage is amazing because I can tap into the heart of fear, taking that frightened energy and turning it towards initiative, creativity, action, and hope. When courage comes alive, imprisoning walls become frontiers of new possibility, difficulty becomes invitation, and the heart comes into a new rhythm of trust and sureness. There are secret sources of courage inside every human heart; yet courage needs to be awakened in us. The encounter with the Beautiful can bring such awakening. Courage is a spark that can become the flame of Hope, lighting, new and exciting pathways in what seemed to be dead, dark landscapes.”
I think that you and all those who plan the Perspectiva Festivals do a brilliant job inspiring initiative, creativity, action, and hope in those who attend. What a wonderful thing you are doing with your life, Jonathan!
Mistyped: McIntosh's book is Integral Consciousness
There is also an excellent article by Fred Koffman that claries some things about the lower right (Its) quadrant, Holons, Heaps and Artifacts, https://www.integralworld.net/kofman.html
The basis of the natural world's construction is primary shape, primary geometry, elemental shape - circular, linear, angular. Everything is one of those three - curved, strictly linear, or angled. The intersection of these three modes of geometry makes virtually every shape. If you take enough triangles, squares, and circles, any form will appear. Put them together in certain conjunctions, and they will make absolutely every form. The world as it seems to be is multiples of primary geometries, intersecting with each other many, many times, such that all perceptible forms seem to be feathery or soft-edged.
Lovely (and true and good) reflections here, Jonathan. My favorite notion is actually in your first note: “epistemic proprioception.” It suggests knowing how to dance through the catacomb of ideas with proper pacing and care, not necessarily knowing everything but knowing enough to get where you’d like to go without knocking over and breaking anything.
On the three transcendentals, I cannot help on this Easter Sunday but to notice the analogical resonance with the Paschal Triduum. Friday is the True, the inevitable suffering that comes with finite embodied life. Saturday is the Beautiful, the pregnant silence between darkness and first light. Sunday is the Good, the overflowing revelation of the nature of the anthropocosmos.
Thank you, I really enjoyed this post. It got me thinking about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s story of The Three Sisters in her book Braiding Sweetgrass.
Drawing on indigenous wisdom and botany, she relates the tale and then shows how it explains the reciprocal relationships between companion plants: beans, corn and squash that are traditionally planted together and eaten together. From here she expands to consider familial relationships and broader societal values that intertwine and are mutually beneficial.
I love the way that as she explains, she models so that her storytelling combines truth, beauty and goodness.
Jonathan -- although Wilber doesn't have much to say about threes and fourness, another integral theorist named Steve McIntosh does in his book Integral Spirituality
https://www.stevemcintosh.com/. It is also worth noting, perhaps, that as complexity and leadership scholar Mike McMaster (The Intelligence Advantage; Organizing for Complexity) asserts, complexity requires a minimum of four variables.
Aloha sir... I don't buy that words as 'one-dimensional things' (even in consort with each other) can ever point unfailingly at any of the threenesses that I experience Jonathan. There is always the dilemma that we all Project meaning onto our worlds...
I did a U of T doctoral degree – up to my committee looking at what I thought was The Thing. But no... They couldn't get it. I am better off without that though. I have recognized the Guardrails of Normality per 2025. Our world has as much use for words to kill as to heal. The Binarity can't be swallowed by a trinity in any way,. The threeness needs to account for how and where the killing field of the Binary exists. Studying on my own since 1983 (and that doctoral stint) as a psychotherapist, I see Daoism's arcane and esoteric thought as better than those three 'nice' words. Sorry.
Here's Laozi: "Dao produces unity; unity produces duality; duality produces trinity; trinity produces all things. All things bear the negative principle (Yin) and embrace the positive principle (Yang). Immaterial vitality, the third principle (Chi), makes them harmonious."14
~ Laozi ~
As a form of eco-therapist I see that as far more useful.
To me I see that Laozi was actually buttressed by da Vinci...
“Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind:
Study the science of art. Study the art of science.
Develop your senses – especially learn how to see.
Realize that every thing connects to everything else.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci ~
Best ; > } Barry
To elaborate on the Laozi quote, in the Daoist system, Three represents the trinity of yang (Shen/Spirit), yin (Jing/Essence), and their integration, the T'ai Chi (Qi/Life-force energy). These are considered the "Three Treasures" (san bao) of the universe.
My fingers :>) slipped there... my point was that we all (I have found/experienced) project our own unique meanings onto "our words" as also onto "other's words" – as well as onto the bigger units of sentences ad so on..
My conversation with the o3 min version of ChatGpt on Mar 2 2025
(What is very interesting here is how bluntly the difference is highlighted with monothesism's lack of a middle factor...)
Barry: "What elements of 'threeness' are there within the majority of 'religious, spiritual frameworks' (with examples please) and, in contrast, are there any with no significant place for threeness?"
Reasoned about threeness in spiritual frameworks for 6 seconds
Across many religious and spiritual traditions, the number three is used as a powerful symbol to express unity in diversity, the balance of forces, or different aspects of the divine. Here are some notable examples:
Frameworks Emphasizing Threeness
• Christianity – The Trinity:
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—while remaining one God. This triune concept is central to mainstream Christian theology, encapsulating the complexity and unity of the divine.
• Hinduism – The Trimurti:
In Hinduism, the Trimurti consists of three major deities: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer or transformer). These three aspects together represent the cyclical nature of the universe and the various processes that sustain it.
• Neopaganism and Wicca – The Triple Goddess:
In many modern Pagan and Wiccan traditions, threeness is embodied in the Triple Goddess archetype, which manifests as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. This triadic figure represents the stages of life, fertility, and the cyclical nature of existence.
• Ancient Egyptian Religion – Divine Triads:
In various periods of ancient Egyptian history, gods were often worshipped in triads. For example, the Theban triad featured Amun (a creator deity), his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu. These groupings underscored complementary roles and the interconnectedness of divine forces.
• Buddhism – The Three Jewels:
While not describing a deity, Buddhism emphasizes three foundational elements: the Buddha (the enlightened teacher), the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community of practitioners). This triad offers a framework for spiritual practice and guidance.
Frameworks with Little Emphasis on Threeness
• Islam – Absolute Monotheism (Tawhid):
Islamic theology is grounded in the concept of Tawhid, the absolute oneness of God. Unlike Christian theology, Islam explicitly rejects any division or multiplicity in God’s nature. The idea of a triune deity is seen as incompatible with its strict monotheistic principles.
• Judaism – Singular Monotheism:
Similarly, mainstream Judaism centers on a single, indivisible God. While there are rich traditions and multifaceted descriptions of God's attributes in Jewish texts, there is no doctrinal basis for a triadic form of the divine akin to the Christian Trinity.
Conclusion
Threeness in religious symbolism often serves to capture complex ideas—such as creation, preservation, and transformation in Hinduism or the multifaceted nature of divinity in Christianity—by grouping related aspects into a unified whole. In contrast, traditions like Islam and Judaism, which emphasize an uncompromising singularity of the divine, do not adopt a triadic structure in their core theology. This difference highlights how numerical symbolism can shape the conceptual framework and identity of a religious tradition.
o3-mini
Jonathan,
I agree that Wilber doesn't discuss the trade-offs between threeness and fourness in much detail; instead he just basically equates them. Your footnote #9 provides a good summary. The best discussion of it that I've found is in his book The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion (1998): "...the Big Three, which are just a shorthand version of the four quadrants."
In chapter 4 (Modernity: Dignity and Disaster), he brings in art, science, and morals, which are then associated with The Good, The True, and the Beautiful, and then he equates them with I, WE, and IT (pp. 47-52).
Quote from page 48:
"But with the rise of modernity, the speres of art, science, and morals were clearly differentiated, and this marked the dignity of modernity because each sphere could now pursue its own truth without violence and domination from the others. You could look through Galileo's telescope without being hauled before the Inquisition. You could paint the human body in a natural setting without being tried for heresy against God and Pope. You could espouse the universal moral rights of humans without being charged with treason against King or Queen."
In chapter 5 (The Four Corners of the Known Universe) he brings in the quadrants, and on pages 74-75 he equates them with "The Big Three: I, WE, and IT." 'Worth quoting at length,' as the saying goes:
"We saw that the core of modernity was the widespread differentiation of art, morals, and science (or I, WE, and IT). But if we now look at the four quadrants, we find that they correlate exactly with these domains. The Upper-Left quadrant is described in I-language, the Lower-Left quadrant is described in we-language, and both of the Right-Had quadrants, because they are objective exteriors, are described in it-language.
And so, in something of a surprise turn, we have arrived back at the "Big Three" cultural values spheres of art, morals, and science; the Beautiful, the Good, and the True; I, WE, and IT...
I refer to these three value spheres as the "Big Three" because they are three of the most significant of modernity's differentiations, destined to play a crucial role in so many areas of life. This is not simply my own idea. The Big Three are recognized by an influential number of scholars. They are Sir Karl Popper's three worlds: subjective (I), cultural (WE), and objective (IT). They are Habermas's three validity claims: subjective sincerity (I), intersubjective justness (WE), and objective truth (IT). They are Plato's Beautiful, Good, and True. They even show up in Buddhism as Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (the I, the It, and the We of the Real, as will soon become obvious).
And of enormous historical importance, the Big Three showed up in Kant's immensely influential trilogy: Critique of Pure Reason (objective science), Critique of Practical Reason (morals), and Critique of Judgement (aesthetic judgment and art). Dozens of examples could be given, but that is the general picture of the Big Three, which are just a shorthand version of the four quadrants.
The fact that the four quadrants (or simply the Big Three) ...show up cross-culturally and nearly universally...ought to tell us something, ought to tell us that they are etched deeply into the being of the Kosmos, that they are the warp and woof of the fabric of the Real, announcing abiding truths about our world, about its insides and outsides, about its individual and communal forms. Ought to tell us, that is, that we are simply looking at the four faces of the Kosmos, the four corners of the known world, and none of them apparently will go away, no matter how tightly we close our eyes."
Thanks. Useful. It’s very curious, right? He doesn’t seem to grasp that he is being read as a purveyor of foundational truths and meta-theoretical axioms and he shifts between three and four as if they are *obviously* the same thing, without really explaining what might be lost by IT and ITS being collapsed.
Yes, what might be lost by IT and ITS being collapsed? Great question! I believe the Integral community has given short shrift to the ITS quadrant, which I tried to partially address in my 2015 presentation at the Integral Theory Conference (Navigating the Transition to a World in Energy Descent) when I asked "Where is Energy in AQAL?"
Issues related to Energy, Ecology, and Economics, and the need for integration of these disciplines are too rarely addressed. Instead the fallacy of misplaced concreteness tends to be applied to the given structure of "the techno-economic base." Attention has now shifted a bit, but we're very late in the game.
Exactly. And AI is there too. It’s like the lower right is colonising the other three quadrants…
Jonathan with the help of Claude 3: I drafted an essay that I hope complements your investigation into Threeness with my recollections three-body interactions in chemistry.
The essay:
Establishes the three-body problem in physics and chemistry as foundational concepts
Explores catalysis as a sophisticated version of the third-body principle
Maps partially these chemical concepts onto the three-ness of systemd-souls-society.
~ Examines briefly how "catalytic presence" functions in human systems
~ Draws parallels between chemical and social equilibrium
~ Concludes with reflections on the generative power of three-element systems.
Happy to share if it may be of value 🤔
According to what I can remember from one of Wilber's books, we (or maybe Western Worldviews) focus too much on the external, and the Lower quadrant (ITS) is where most of the action is. My twist for my four quadrants was to change the Natural world (matter, resources, energy... i.e. The vital Hand), from the Lower Right Quadrant to the Upper Right Quadrant and make it normative, i.e. in some way "sacred". Through the semantic twist that Wilber wrote in the Upper Right Quadrant "Behavioural", I said that our "Behaviour" to the Upper Right quadrant (Natural Environment) is our key principle to be alive, so the other three quadrants are pointed to it, normatively. In some way, although graphically, my four quadrants seem similar, there is a "bias" to the "Natural World" and just putting the "human being" outside of that "Natural World" (yes, with some anthropocentric nuances), I was able to write my Master's thesis on Sustainability with that "normative" approach and answer the question of my research: How could we survive?
That’s interesting to hear. At the end of my essay on metamodernism I also change the character of the quadrants a little and had a similar intuition/desire on the upper right, which I called Ecology. https://systems-souls-society.com/metamodernism-and-the-perception-of-context-the-cultural-between-the-political-after-and-the-mystic-beyond/
"My Plato spies"
Just want to comment on how delightfully playful this was.
Happy to hear that, thanks.
Had to actively stop myself from daydreaming about Aristotle sending over spies and getting foiled by your spies, who obviously were superior spies by virtue of time travelling.
Jonathan,
I found these notes on threeness & fourness:
Jung Circles and Squares
The circle was the divine geometry to the Greeks and Pi (~3) describes its ratios
The square is the divine + one (the mother, Mary) to describe the world - the union of the soul and spirit; also the cardinal directions.
Mandala is a circle in a square; rotunda; an aid to revelation which is a psychological event
3+4=7 the mystical & sacred seven; the seven days of creation, seven chakras, seven heavens in Islam, and the seven deadly sins; also the visible planets + sun & moon.
Art
According to Wagensberg's aphorism the order was Beauty, Truth, Good.
"In the race towards humanity, first came the useful and the useless, then the beautiful and the ugly, then the true and the false, and finally the good and the bad." - Jorge Wagensberg
Then another one indirectly points out our present moments with the Fakes, Post-truth and so on and probably fits in my idea of the importance of Ethical Media (including social networks and AI) through my Tethraedrom of the Planetary Wellbeing Society. Without that light of the ethical media, the other three components will be extinguished, I.e.
"Curiously, in order for the logic of good and bad to progress, the logic of true and false must first progress." - Jorge Wagensberg
... and he has probably 20 more insightful aphorisms about beauty; in this one, he follows his rule of why Beauty was the first one.
"The ability to appreciate beauty is a pre-selection that prepares the mind for its ability to understand."
Finally, because I'm a lover of triads and tetrads, I was inspired by Wilber's four quadrants, although I changed one of them. On the other side in my research about Wilber, it seems that he "copied" or "being inspired" by E.F. Schumacher's 4 quadrants from his book “A Guide for the Perplexed” (1977)
Learned yesterday that the Latin "sapere" which is the root of Sapiens, where we usually take that as meaning "wise," was also for the Romans "taste." Was wisdom for the Romans closer to aesthetics than to rationality?
I suspect you'd find value in the lead article in the current Journal of Consciousness Studies, "A Neuroscientific Image of Human Beings Worth Standing Up For: The Nested Assumptions of 'You are (NOT) Your Brain'" by Pieter F. Craffert. He touches on a trinity, by way of processes and holism, clearly explicating a paradigm shift (words he doesn't use) in framing the location of consciousness, which has been gaining momentum in the last several decades among scientists and philosophers. (The article is more readable than the title, perhaps.) I suspect this is the shift you're looking for, if it may be more broadly accomplished.
Jung has a lot to say about threeness & fourness—trinity and quaternary. Look at his “A Psychological Approach to the Dogma of the Trinity” (1948).
Jonathan with the help of Claude 3: I drafted an essay that I hope complements your investigation into Threeness with my recollections three-body interactions in chemistry. It is fifty years since I graduated in organic and inorganic chemistry.
The essay:
Establishes the three-body problem in physics and chemistry as foundational concepts
Explores catalysis as a sophisticated version of the third-body principle
Maps partially these chemical concepts onto the three-ness of systemd-souls-society.
~ Examines briefly how "catalytic presence" functions in human systems
~ Draws parallels between chemical and social equilibrium
~ Concludes with reflections on the generative power of three-element systems.
Happy to share if it may be of value 🤔
I thought I'd just share a symbol that seems to have cropped up quite a lot recently. This example is a wooden roof boss at St Andrews church, South Lawton, Dartmoor.
https://dartmoorexplorations.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/9d.-Three-Hares-b-2048x1536.jpg
I agree with Dostoyevsky that “Beauty will save the world”! John O’Donohue‘s book on Beauty, would be a good primer for Perspectiva’s Realization Fellowship participants. He says in the introduction to that book that when “the mechanical mind dominates, the habit of gentleness dies out. We become blind: nature is rifled, politics eschews vision and becomes the obsessive servant of economics, and religion opts for the mathematics of system and forgets its mystical flame. Instead of true leadership which would be the servant of vision and imagination, we have systems of puppetry which are carefully constructed and manipulated from elsewhere. We never know who we are dealing with; hidden agendas operate to deepen our insecurity and persuade us to be hopeless.” And this was written 23 years ago!
I will quote John O’Donahue further because I think his wisdom is directly relevant to this moment. In the paragraph that follows the previous quote, he says, “Yet constant struggle leaves us tired and empty. Our struggle for reform needs to be tempered and balanced with a capacity for celebration. When we lose sight of beauty, our struggle becomes tired and functional. When we expect and engage the Beautiful, a new fluency is set free within us and between us. The heart becomes rekindled and our lives brighten with unexpected courage. It is courage that restores hope to the heart. In our day-to-day lives, we often show courage without realizing it. However, it is only when we are afraid that courage becomes a question. Courage is amazing because I can tap into the heart of fear, taking that frightened energy and turning it towards initiative, creativity, action, and hope. When courage comes alive, imprisoning walls become frontiers of new possibility, difficulty becomes invitation, and the heart comes into a new rhythm of trust and sureness. There are secret sources of courage inside every human heart; yet courage needs to be awakened in us. The encounter with the Beautiful can bring such awakening. Courage is a spark that can become the flame of Hope, lighting, new and exciting pathways in what seemed to be dead, dark landscapes.”
I think that you and all those who plan the Perspectiva Festivals do a brilliant job inspiring initiative, creativity, action, and hope in those who attend. What a wonderful thing you are doing with your life, Jonathan!
Mistyped: McIntosh's book is Integral Consciousness
There is also an excellent article by Fred Koffman that claries some things about the lower right (Its) quadrant, Holons, Heaps and Artifacts, https://www.integralworld.net/kofman.html
Please find a unique understanding of threeness.
The basis of the natural world's construction is primary shape, primary geometry, elemental shape - circular, linear, angular. Everything is one of those three - curved, strictly linear, or angled. The intersection of these three modes of geometry makes virtually every shape. If you take enough triangles, squares, and circles, any form will appear. Put them together in certain conjunctions, and they will make absolutely every form. The world as it seems to be is multiples of primary geometries, intersecting with each other many, many times, such that all perceptible forms seem to be feathery or soft-edged.