‘Perennial Philosophy’ and Embodiment

July 3rd, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Cognition, Embodiment, Evolution, Perennialism, Universals, Wilbur, Ken |

The universality of embodiment inevitably produces a similar universality of conceptual and cognitive structure, both in terms of the phylogeny of the human species, and the ontogeny of the individual human. Shared evolutionary history has given us all the same mental toolkit. Introspective and intuitive methods of developing knowledge; ways of thinking which draw only on this toolkit; also therefore inevitably produces similar models for the organisation of that knowledge. This is most evidently true when considering models of the psyche, and the relationship of psyche to the rest of existence.

Introspective methods for considering the organisation of the psyche, whether this introspection take place within a scientific, religious, or philosophical context, have tended to postulate very similar organisational structures. Pundit and founder of ‘integral philosophy’ Ken Wilbur has mapped and charted these correlations in great detail, referring to the general similarity in psychic structure which emerges as evidence for what he calls the ‘Perennial Philosophy’ (1). Wilbur goes on to suggest that the degree of similarity between the numerous different models of psyche and world is indicative of some kind of absolute or archetypal truth, that the psyche really is constructed in the way these models suggest. However, another way of looking at this correlation is to consider such overlap an inevitable consequence of embodiment. Such models inevitably draw on familiar structures of organisation mapped metaphorically from physical embodied experience, utilising such features as levels/hierarchies, part/whole distinctions, nested categories, chains, gradients, and spectra. These concrete features, experienced sensorially and kinesthetically by our bodies and those of our genetic ancestors, form the metaphorical features which shape our cognition.

Wilber,Ken - A theory of everything : an integral vision for business, politics, science and spirituality. Shambhala Publications. 2000