Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century

* Book: Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century: Critical Realism and Integral Theory in Dialogue (Ontological Explorations. Ed. by Roy Bhaskar and Sean Esbjörn-Hargen. Routledge, 2015

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Contextual Quote

"This book therefore takes a fresh look at the role of metatheory in the 21st-century.Throughout the volume, we showcase a variety of perspectives on what metatheory is,and what it ought to become to adequately grasp and address the unique and urgentcontext of our planetary moment. Our aim is to help ignite the potentials of integrativemetatheory as an emancipatory, visionary, and transformational force vis-à-vis ourcomplex 21st-century challenges. We try to make the case that metatheory in theappropriate form provides indispensable intellectual scaffolding for the crucial psychological, cultural, and social transformations demanded by a world in metacrisis. We do this through, first, reflection on the role and function of metatheory in geo-historical context; and, second, the development of metatheory through an exploratory-dialogical encounter between what are arguably amongst the most sophisticated contemporary metatheories, critical realism and integral theory ( and to some extent complex thought)."

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargen et al. [2]

Description

“Metatheory for the 21st Century is one of the many exciting results of over four years of in-depth engagement between two communities of scholar-practitioners: critical realism and integral theory. Building on its origins at a symposium in Luxembourg in 2010, this book examines the points of connection and divergence between critical realism and integral theory, arguably two of the most comprehensive and sophisticated contemporary metatheories. The Luxembourg symposium and the four more that followed explored the possibilities for their cross-pollination, culminating in five positions on their potential for integration, and began the process of fashioning a whole new evolutionary trajectory for both integral theory and critical realism. The contributors to this book bring together critical realism and integral theory in order to explore the potential of this collaboration for the advancement of both. Highlighting the ways in which these metatheories can transform scholarship and address the most pressing global issues of the 21st century, this book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners in the areas of metatheory, philosophy, social theory, critical realism, integral theory and current affairs more generally.”

Contents

Nicholas Hedlund et al. :

"The first two chapters of the volume represent in various ways position 0. We open the volume with Zachary Stein’s “Beyond nature and humanity: Reflections on the emergence and purposes of metatheories.” In this chapter, Stein takes a metaview on metatheories. Adopting an “expressive” style rather than a “persuasive” one, he explores the notion of “metatheory” and provides an historical reconstruction drawing on some key figures (e.g., Peirce, Baldwin, Piaget, and Habermas) that contribute to contemporary understandings of the practice and philosophy of metatheory. He discusses the normative nature and function of metatheories, with a focus on their evolutionary and developmental framings. Stein ends with linking his reflections to the metatheory projects of Wilber and Bhaskar. This chapter serves the volume by helping to ground our current project in the historical and philosophical contexts that have set the stage for our dialogical encounter. Stein invites us to simultaneously look backward and forward as to the purpose of integrative metatheories.

Building on the theme of reflecting on and delineating the clearing of integrative metatheorizing the next chapter is Mark G. Edwards’ “Healing the Half-World: The Emancipatory Potential of Meta-Level Social Science”. Edwards is well known for his ground-breaking work in articulating the architecture of an integral meta-studies. In this chapter he furthers his project by exploring the healing and emancipatory potential of a meta-level social science. To do this he examines Bhaskar’s triadic lens “Absolute-Relative-Demi-reality” and its meta-ontological implications for reflexive social science. To deepen this inquiry he juxtaposes Bhaskar’s lens with Wilber’s meta-hermeneutic engagement with the Absolute-Relative lens. Edwards’ leverages both Bhaskar and Wilber’s approaches to illustrate how an emancipatory social science could be developed. In doing this, Edward’s not only illustrates the process of engaging multiple integrative metatheories to support emancipatory aims, but he demonstrates the value of drawing on both critical realism and integral theory for such a project. In other words, Edwards illuminates the process of creating a meta-context by engaging specific metatheories.

Next we have Sean Esbjörn-Hargens’ “Developing a Complex Integral Realism for Global Response: Three Meta-Frameworks for Knowledge Integration and Coordinated Action.” This is an ambitious chapter that can be viewed as a representative of position 1, though Esbjörn-Hargens’ intent is more about developing a “meta-praxis” of creating an integral metatheory. To illustrate this he places critical realism, integral theory, and complex thought into a “trialectical” encounter that serves to address the blindspots of each approach. Drawing on the key strengths of each integral metatheory, Esbjörn-Hargens develops three meta-frameworks (one for each of the domains of epistemology, methodology, and ontology) to support this meta- praxis. This chapter provides a powerful example of what a preservative synthesis between the three integral metatheories might consist of and as such paves the way for further development of such a complex integral realism.

Complementing the previous chapter, Paul Marshall’s “Towards a Complex, Integral Realism” serves to provide a detailed analysis of the key concepts and frameworks of all three integral metatheories (critical realism, integral theory, and complex thought)and their resulting common ground. Marshall does an excellent job of discussing the areas of cross-fertilization between these three metatheories. In contrast to Esbjörn-Hargens’ chapter which uses the three integral metatheories to go “meta-meta”, Marshall uses them to go “meta-micro” and provide a detailed overview of the similarities and differences between all three. He concludes his chapter by identifying some of the key features of a “complex, integral realism.” This chapter serves as an illustration of position 2 and the possibility of a synthesis between these three integrative metatheories.

In “Rethinking the Intellectual Resources for Addressing Complex 21st-Century Challenges: Towards a Critical Realist Integral Theory” Nick Hedlund rolls up his philosophical sleeves and begins the hard work of creating a non-preservative synthesis between critical realism and integral theory. He calls the result a CRIT – acritical realist integral theory—and this represents position 3, which is characterized by a non-preservative synthesis (i.e., some elements from each theory are negated in order to create the synthesis). To do this, he examines in detail the epistemological and ontological positions of each metatheory. Then he critiques each metatheory in light of the other theory. This systematic analysis does much to lay the groundwork for considering what a CRIT might consist of. This chapter does a great job of detailing the philosophical challenges each metatheory poses to the other and how they might be reconciled into a new vision.

In a similar, but less systematic and synthetic, spirit to Hedlund, Michael Schwartz explores the complementary and divergent natures of critical realism and integral theory. In his chapter, “After Integral Gets Real: On Meta-Critical Chiasma of CR and IT” he identifies a number of points of contact between both metatheories and how each can be enhanced by distinctions and perspectives from the other. Schwartz begins with the polarized domain of being and knowing. It is polarized in the sense that this is where the most obvious clashes of perspectives occur between the two traditions. Next he explores the important role that negativity and nothingness plays in both metatheories. This sets the stage for him to explore the role of schemes: CR’s stratified ontology of horizontal depth and IT’s stratified ontology of vertical height. He concludes with a discussion of nonduality, a view that both schools include as important and foundational to their approaches. While in some respects Schwartz’s chapter appears to be oriented to process as much as position, we nonetheless feel that this chapter represents a view that falls between positions 3 and 4.

Striking a more first-person reflective tone, Mervyn Hartwig’s “Why I’m a Critical Realist” represents position 4. Hartwig holds that there are important resonances between critical realism and integral theory and that each can benefit from an encounter with the other. However, he argues that there are fundamental incommensurable aspects that render any real synthesis (preservative or otherwise)impossible. This chapter in effect has two streams of discourse occurring simultaneously. On the one hand there is the narrative of Hartwig’s philosophical journey with critical realism and an argument that the polycrisis can be resolved only by an epochal transition to a global society based on solidarity and love, as thematised by critical realism. On the other hand there are his robust endnotes, which provide a context for him to unpack some salient points about the limits of integral theory and its incommensurability with critical realism. This structure serves to highlight how the practice of philosophy is wonderfully always inter alia a very personal and biographical process.

The final chapter of the volume is Tom Murray’s “Contributions of Embodied Philosophy to Ontological Questions in Critical Realism and Integral Theory”. This chapter takes a different approach than previous chapters in that it is less concerned with the relationship or possible synthesis between critical realism and integral theory. Instead, Murray draws on the field of embodied philosophy (a la Lakoff and Johnson’s position of embodied realism) to augment both CR and IT. He introduces a number of the core distinctions and findings of embodied realism and illustrates how these notions can ground integrative metatheories like CR and IT. He focuses on epistemological and ontological issues, which is quite useful given that it is within these contexts that most of the philosophical challenges and opportunities exist between these two approaches. In some respects this final chapter represents position 0 in that it foregrounds the process of integrative metatheorizing and helps establish the clearing of such metathinking and meta-practice. However, we felt that this was an apt chapter to complete this volume with, as it highlights how the dialogue that has occurred to date, and is in part represented by the chapters in this volume, can be further developed, expanded, and deepened by drawing on other philosophical traditions beyond the sphere of integrative metatheories as such. Besides, given the abstract nature of integrative metatheories, this chapter is useful in anchoring them in our embodied experience, making us more aware of the epistemic drives and multiple metaphors we can use to navigate, in fruitful ways, the many lines of inquiry that the encounter between integrative metatheories opens up.

...

We are very pleased to conclude the volume with an Afterword by Markus Molz who, as noted above, is largely responsible for planting the seeds—at the Luxembourg symposium in 2010—for what grew into this five-year (and counting) dialogue between leading scholar-practitioners of critical realism and integral theory (as well as other notable positions). Molz's Afterword helps situate the generative encounter documented in this volume within an even larger inquiry around the importance of creating interspaces of engagement between different streams of integrative and even non-integrative metatheories. We welcome Molz's reflections as they serve to further our own commitment to using what has transpired between the communities of critical realism and integral theory as a way of exploring and modeling the transformative and emancipatory potential of bringing different metatheories into intimate contact with each other."

(https://www.academia.edu/26063515/On_the_Deep_Need_for_Integrative_Metatheory_in_the_21st_Century)

Excerpts

Meta-Crisis

Mervyn Hartwig et al. :

"What distinguishes the meta-crisis from the poly-crisis is that, while the latter highlights that there are many different crises occurring simultaneously and recognizes that many of these are interconnected, the former goes a step further and uses integrative metatheoretical frameworks and distinctions to reveal the subjective as well as objective, semiotic as well as “material”, “interior” as well as “exterior” dynamics in play.

Whereas poly refers to ‘many’ crises and their objective interconnection, meta refers in addition to their higher-order unity as a complex totality or singularity that includes human construals and interventions and the possibility of a more adequate metaview that grasps real future possibilities. Meta implies an overarching unity or identity that holds and operates on the differences in their subjective as well as objective complexity. The notion of the meta-crisis thus challenges the idea of an exclusively technological set of solutions to our global challenges. Because, in a context of generalized power (power-over) relations both construals and responses will be contested, resolution of the metacrisis will involve among other things ‘hermeneutic hegemonic/counter-hegemonic struggles’ (R. Bhaskar, 1993/2008, pp. 62, our emphasis).

Metatheory is needed inter alia to orient and support the coordination of these struggles globally. Its meta view offers an integrated perspective of the human subject in relation to the world. Without it, we can’t even ‘see’ the poly-crisis, let alone construe it adequately or relate to it effectively; with it, new realities and leverage points for impact are highlighted. Metatheories have co-evolved or co-emerged with the metacrisis. On the one hand the metacrisis demands and in part drives the emergence of integrative metatheory. On the other hand integrative metatheories allow one to see and engage the metacrisis in its full holistic complexity. They thus present us with unprecedented opportunities for helping to effect a transition to a new sustainableform of life. They can help empower us to make it through the collective rite of passage that the metacrisis necessitates."

(https://www.academia.edu/26063515/On_the_Deep_Need_for_Integrative_Metatheory_in_the_21st_Century)

Wicked Problem

Roy Bhaskar et al. :

"Theorists, such as Hulme (2009), use the term ‘wicked problems’ in an attempt to illuminate the novel and dynamic qualities of complexity associated with many of our 21st-century challenges, such as climate change.

The notion of "wicked problems", introduced by Rittel and Webber (1973), was used originally in social planning to describe a problem that is resistant to simple resolution due to the complex, open-systemic interdependencies of its multiple natural and social facets as they dynamically morph, reconfigure into emergent relational networks, and feedback on each other in complex, non-linear ways.

The term ‘wicked’ is used, not in the sense of evil or any other normative judgment, but rather to refer to resistance to simple resolution. Moreover, because of such complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems, much like Hercules found in trying to slay the Hydra, according to the ancient Greek myth."

(https://www.academia.edu/26063515/On_the_Deep_Need_for_Integrative_Metatheory_in_the_21st_Century)