October 17, 2015
45th Annual International Jean Gebser Society Conference
SAN FRANCISCO OCTOBER 16-18TH
in conjunction with the
PHILOSOPHY, COSMOLOGY, AND CONSCIOUSNESS PROGRAM
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION DEPARTMENT
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL STUDIES
full details can be found at gebser.org
Videos of Conference Presentations
Conference Description
In the winter of 1932, from a grammatical detail in the poetry of Rilke, Jean Gebser intuited an entire shift in the structure of western consciousness. Diaphanous, liberated from time, and free from the constraints of perspective, Gebser’s integral vision came to him in a “lightning-like flash of inspiration”. As he unfolded this seed, he later remarked that it bore “extensive similarities to the world-design of Sri Aurobindo”, whose work he was originally unaware of. Alongside Gebser and Aurobindo, thinkers such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (theology and palaeontology), Alfred North Whitehead (philosophy), and David Bohm (cosmology) would independently confirm the significance of Gebser’s integral vision. Such instances speak to the relevance of an integral reality beyond mere intellectual theory.
Spanning the sciences and humanities, this conference seeks to explore the work of leading and neglected figures in the emergence of integral philosophy, past and present. By charting the “morphic resonances” that appear to exist among the works of diverse evolutionary and holarchical theorists, we aim to further Gebser’s commitment to a genuinely interdisciplinary methodology, and the rendering transparent of the integral world.
Some of the questions the conference will address:
How has Gebser’s intimation of an emerging integral structure of consciousness directly influenced or been independently confirmed by the work of congenial thinkers? In what ways can his account of integral consciousness be further fleshed out by the work of those who follow in his wake?
In what ways does Gebser’s overarching account of the evolution of consciousness illumine and enhance the contributions of these thinkers? How have Gebser’s ideas been anticipated by currents within eastern and western philosophy of mind? How do precepts and practices from the world’s esoteric lineages, ancient or modern, contribute to the realization of integral consciousness?
In what ways might Gebser’s work be legitimately criticized, refined, or revised? To what extent has Gebser’s work been appropriated or misread, constructively or otherwise, by integral theorists?
