Ken Wilber's four quadrants of consciousness, Videocentrism and the
influence of African Traditional culture and religion...
I do find the academic arena quite stimulating. The
thought of conducting ground breaking research, of contributing towards the
development of new ideas, of increasing the body of knowledge on a subject, is
quite an enticing and in some ways uniquely purposeful
activity.
This past week has been very
satisfying in this respect. After a meeting with my friend Kevin Snyman (he
completed his Doctorate last year) on Tuesday I found new impetus for my own
Doctoral research. I write this with a feeling of optimism. I have a new hope
at the timely completion of the work that needs doing.
Kevin helped me to see how my research
can have some value, and offer some new insight, into the area that I wish to
investigate.
Furthermore, a paper
that I received from Prof du Toit (relating to technoscience and personal
identity) has offered some significant, useful, insights and guidelines for the
research project.
The insights from the
above-mentioned sources relate to the work of Ken Wilber and the four quadrants
approach to consciousness, together with the insight that African culture,
tradition and religion, can offer into the notion of personhood and
consciousness in a technologically dominated
society.
There is no doubt that
technology is influencing just about every part of the world, either directly
through its use and inclusion in daily life, or through exclusion from its use
and disempowerment through not being able to harness technology to participate
in world economy and society.
Ken
Wilber offers a very thorough, and complete, approach to the evolution of
consciousness as a cosmological, non dual, reality. In particular the notion of
holism (or holons) influences these thoughts and hypotheses. From Prof du
Toit’s point of view the cultural shift from phonocentrism (oral
tradition) to logocentrism (the influence of written works, and in particular
the proliferation of ideas through the invention of printing press) and
currently the influence of virtuocentrism (the manner in which people experience
others, and represent themselves, in a virtual manner – either through
technologies such as information technology, video conferencing and instant
messaging - and of course, even virtual environments such as the Methodist
Church of Britain's online virtual Church that I wrote about recently. The
Church can be found at www.churchoffools.com) has had a significant influence on
the understandings of personhood, and consciousness
thereof.
The African cultural and
religious understanding of identity based not on negation of others and
affirmation of the individual, but rather on identity and personhood through
community and others, is a very significant and valuable insight that may offer
some new ideas that could positively influence both culture and technology.
Such insights could influence understandings of the structure of society, the
use of technology and science, awareness of interconnectivity and
interdependence between humanity and the rest of
creation.
I hope to make some
worthwhile discoveries as I read within these areas over the next few months.
If anyone who reads this has any insights, useful reading, or ideas that may aid
this project please do drop me a line. I would love to hear from
you!
It's all been said above!
Posted: Sat
- June 5, 2004 at 12:34 PM