Metapattern Institute
= " a digital humanities research and knowledge mobilization organization based in Montreal, ... operating at the intersection of health informatics and integral human development." [1]
URL = https://metapattern.org/
Description
Erik Haines:
"Erik Haines is an independent knowledge management specialist and digital humanities researcher whose work draws on Canadian philosophy, integral humanism, and contextual behavioral science. His research examines how digital tools and information systems shape human development and meaning-making, with an applied focus in health informatics. He holds a B.A. from Concordia University in Applied Human Sciences and Religious Studies, and brings over fifteen years of professional experience in information technology, knowledge management, and financial services.
In 2022, Haines founded the Metapattern Institute and launched the Integral Facticity Podcast, producing 21 episodes of scholarly dialogue across Canadian intellectual history, integral philosophy, critical theory, and political theology.
The Metapattern Institute investigates how digital tools and information systems shape human development and meaning-making — examining structures of knowledge, governance, health, and technology that serve or fail the complex reality of human life.
The Institute's research is grounded in Integral Facticity: the recognition that all human development proceeds within irreducible conditions — biological, psychological, historical, social — and that integral inquiry must begin from those conditions rather than attempt to transcend them. Auto-ethnographic field methods produce longitudinal data on how psychological flexibility operates from within this facticity. The work prioritizes human persons over technocratic or material forms of reductionism, and treats theoretical claims as provisional and subject to revision through what is encountered in lived practice.
The work proceeds from a post-secular, integral-pluralist orientation toward human flourishing, articulated across six axes through the institute's theory [+] praxis — each pairing a domain of digital-humanities inquiry with a philosophical or methodological frame."
(https://metapattern.org/about)
Research Methodology
Eric Haines:
"Integral Facticity [+] Enactive Fallibilism:
The philosophical foundations grounding research at the Institute.
- Integral Facticity synthesizes psychological flexibility with the recognition that all development occurs within irreducible conditions — biological, psychological, historical, social — and holds that integral inquiry must begin from those conditions rather than attempt to transcend them.
- Enactive Fallibilism, drawing on Thompson's enactivism and Peirce's fallibilism, treats all knowledge claims as provisional and subject to revision through lived experience, advancing understanding through continuous dialogue between theory and what is actually encountered in the world. Together, the two frames keep the research tethered to embodied reality while remaining open to the continuous revision that honest inquiry requires. The pairing operates within an engaged fallibilistic pluralism in Bernstein's sense — committed to substantive positions while holding them accountable to other traditions of inquiry."
(https://metapattern.org/theory-%5B%2B%5D-praxis)
Philosophical Foundations
Eric Haines:
"The Institute's foundational philosophy stems from
- Jacques Maritain's integral humanism, which advocates for a synthesis of divine revelation, grace, and reason, offering a systemic approach and understanding of integral human development.
This has been expanded upon with:
Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory: Wilber's AQAL model (All Quadrants, All Levels, All Lines, All States, All Types) structures human experience across four dimensions, providing a comprehensive framework for analysis.
Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach: This approach emphasizes enhancing individual capabilities and opportunities, crucial for achieving personal well-being and aligning with the Institute's focus on integral human development.
Jürgen Habermas’s Communicative Rationality: His work on rational discourse and modernity's ongoing project supports the Institute's exploration of consensus through communication.
Fred Dallmayr’s Method of Intercultural Dialogue and Integral Pluralism: Encourages an integrative perspective across diverse cultural philosophies, resonating deeply with the principles of integral facticity and enactive fallibilism.
Steven C. Hayes’s Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Influences the development of IACT by integrating psychological flexibility with actionable values and his six core processes of ACT."
(https://www.erikhaines.org/p/the-metapattern-institute)
Key Theories
Eric Haines:
"Integral Facticity: This concept emphasizes the interconnectedness of various aspects of life and knowledge. It seeks to understand the complex and interwoven nature of human existence, promoting an integral and systemic view of knowledge and reality. Inspired by Ken Wilber's AQAL model, integral facticity encourages researchers to consider the broader context and relationships when studying a phenomenon, integrating insights from different disciplines to form a more complete and nuanced understanding of reality and facticity.
Enactive Fallibilism: This philosophical approach acknowledges the fallibility of human knowledge and promotes continuous learning and adaptation. It suggests that knowledge is not passively received but actively constructed through our interactions with the world. Enactive fallibilism emphasizes the importance of recognizing the limitations of human knowledge and the need for ongoing dialogue and revision of beliefs. Drawing on Jürgen Habermas's critique of instrumental rationality, it advocates for communicative rationality and the role of rational discourse in achieving mutual understanding."