The Modern Philosopher: Ken Wilber

Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr. (born January 31, 1949) is one of the most widely read American philosophers of the past century. His works attempting to bridge Eastern mysticism and Western psychology have been translated into more languages than any other American academic and he is the first philosopher in history to have his Collected Works published before his death. He is considered to be "the foremost thinker in the field of the evolution of consciousness” and has been critically compared to Freud and Einstein.

Since finishing his first manuscript in 1973 at the age or 23, Wilber has written nearly 30 scholarly works on his developing ideas of integral philosophy, spirituality, and psychology, as well as released hours upon hours of audio interviews. He has also founded the Integral Institute, a think tank which encourages and networks collaboration between leading scientists, writers, psychologists, musicians, artists, and philanthropists.

Ken Wilber’s integral philosophical approach is based on theories that include what he calls a neo-perennial philosophy, the Great Chain of Being, and nondualism; he considers anti-evolutionary philosophies to be an unfortunate regression. Much of his work is an attempt to explain the union of Emptiness and Form and the changes Form most embrace to recognize the reality of Emptiness.

Ken Wilber’s best known idea is that of the pre-trans fallacy, the theory that the certain stages of consciousness (the pre-rational the transrational) are very similar and can be easily confused. Wilber cites both Freud and Jung as examples of the pre-trans fallacy, characterizing Freud as considering transrational realizations to be regressions to pre-rational states and Jung as believing pre-rational concepts to embody transrational realizations.  It’s interesting to note that Ken Wilber admits in his early works to having fallen victim to the pre-trans fallacy himself.

One of the most important concepts in Wilber’s philosophy is the