3.3 Catching Up

The Quadrants Element of Integral Theory is challenging me...

I have found the presentation of the Quadrants element to be strangely difficult. There are plenty of diagrams with descriptive words and phrases in the quadrants, yet the perspective and utility of the concept is challenging to convey. In fact, since Integral Theory is so much about “perspective taking” and the immense power of understanding how our perspectives affect our thinking, communication, and getting along, I want to understand and help you understand the richness of this element.

I have found my own process of understanding starting out as “hmmm, okay, why is this important,” progressing to several instances of “oh, I see,” and now understanding Quadrants as the unifiying structure for the other 4 elements of Integral. Quadrants hold Levels, Lines, States and Types in consistent, repeatable relationship to each other. My progress in understanding this relationship has taken time, and like other aspects of Integral, I peel new layers of understanding off from time to time.

Today’s post is a day late and presented somewhat differently than previous posts. The two diagrams below display the properties and the contents of the four quadrants. While 4 boxes imply the seperateness of the quadrants, they are actually quite inter-related so please do not think of them as boxes. We will discuss how they related in later posts.

Quadrant Properties: What are the four kinds of ideas, behaviors, phenomena, interests, desires, and goals of the quadrants?

Each quadrant in the Quadrant Properties figure above contains its relative position, its figure of speech (1st, 2nd, or 3rd person), how that translates into the personal I, the collective we, and the impersonal things, it and its. Next are listed the main subjects found in each quadrant’s perspective on reality, and the overarching category of phenomena studied. Finally, a very important bone of contention these days—sometimes referred to as post-truth times—how do we figure out if something in each realm is genuine, bona fide, legit, honest to goodness, reliable, dependable, or valid?

Moving on the the second figure, I’ve listed some of the most common developmental theories and models that primarily reside in one of the four quadrants. Take some time to review these theories and models to get a sense of how the subjects of study properly reside in their quadrant.

Quadrant Contents: the theories and models developed by researchers, theoreticians, scientists, philosophers, and wisdom teachers.

In my next post, I will begin a more in-depth review of each quadrant so we can “road-test” this method of viewing our world and understanding the portion of reality in each quadrant. We will also use quadrant thinking to get more clear about the ways we confuse ourselves and how we can unwrap the entwined ideas.

The figures I created for this piece rely heavily on the excellent “Overview of Integral Theory: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century by Sean Esbjorn-Hargens.¹

1. https://bit.ly/3U6YsXT