One thought, four windows

Wilber's four quadrants come from two distinctions: interior and exterior, and individual and collective.

One thought, four windows: Wilber's four quadrants on his own example. A two-by-two grid of windows, interior and exterior across the top, individual and collective down the side, with a single thought sitting at the crossing. Each window shows what that one thought is from there, in Wilber's own words, with a small drawing of how it appears. Upper Right, It: a beta-wave trace; a release of norepinephrine in the frontal cortex; found by looking; validity claim truth. Upper Left, I: a thought bubble; even knowing every atom of my brain you will never know my thought unless I tell you; found by asking and interpreting; validity claim truthfulness. Lower Left, We: two speech bubbles; if you don't speak the language you won't get the meaning; found by sharing a language; validity claim justness. Lower Right, Its: a small network of structures; cultural meanings have correlates in institutions and material social structures; found by surveying the system; validity claim functional fit. Below, two verbatim passages from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality chapter 4.
One thought, four windows: Wilber's four quadrants on his own example A two-by-two grid of windows, interior and exterior across the top, individual and collective down the side, with a single thought sitting at the crossing. Each window shows what that one thought is from there, in Wilber's own words, with a small drawing of how it appears. Upper Right, It: a beta-wave trace; a release of norepinephrine in the frontal cortex; found by looking; validity claim truth. Upper Left, I: a thought bubble; even knowing every atom of my brain you will never know my thought unless I tell you; found by asking and interpreting; validity claim truthfulness. Lower Left, We: two speech bubbles; if you don't speak the language you won't get the meaning; found by sharing a language; validity claim justness. Lower Right, Its: a small network of structures; cultural meanings have correlates in institutions and material social structures; found by surveying the system; validity claim functional fit. Below, two verbatim passages from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality chapter 4. WILBER WIKI · A CONCEPT IN ONE PICTURE One thought, four windows “I have a thought; a thought occurs to me.” Wilber’s own example, and the four things that are true of it at once. INTERIORwhat it looks like from within EXTERIORwhat it looks like from the outside INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIVE Upper Right · the behavioral aspectIt “…there was a release of norepinephrine between the neural synapses in the frontal cortex, accompanied by high-amplitude beta waves…” look · observe, measure, describe; a monologue is enough validitytruth · does the map match the territory? IUpper Left · the intentional aspect “…even if you know what every single atom of my brain is doing, you will never know the actual details of my thought unless I tell you.” ask · talk, then interpret; looking will never find it validitytruthfulness · can the mapmaker be trusted? WeLower Left · the cultural aspect “If I tell them to you and you don’t speak the language, then you won’t get the meaning” share a language · meaning needs a shared worldspace validityjustness · can we come to mutual understanding? Lower Right · the social aspectIts “…cultural meanings have correlates in objective social institutions and material social structures.” survey the system · written records, buildings, technology validityfunctional fit · what does it do? a thought one holon ◇ The “windows”, the four small drawings, the how-to-find-out lines and the layout are this wiki’s; the thought, its four aspects and their validity claims are Wilber’s “…my ‘single’ thought, the original holon, is not really a single thought as such, but rather a holon with four inseparable aspects (intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social), each with its own validity claims…” Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), ch. 4 “If I want to know what your brain looks like from within, what its actual lived interior is like (in other words, your mind), then I must talk to you. There is absolutely no other way.” Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), ch. 4 Redrawn from Wilber’s tour of the four quadrants in SES ch. 4; not a reproduction of a published figure. The thought is Wilber’s own example · sans labels summarise SES ch. 4 · ◇ marks this wiki’s own device SEEDS OF RENAISSANCE · WILBER WIKI
Wilber's example holon: "I have a thought; a thought occurs to me." Two distinctions, interior/exterior and individual/collective, give four windows onto it. It. From the outside, the thought is a change in brain physiology: norepinephrine, beta waves. True, important, and found by looking. The validity claim is truth. I. From the inside, the thought is a meaning, and knowing every atom of the brain will not give it to you unless the thinker tells you. The validity claim is truthfulness. We. The meaning only exists in a shared language and culture; without them the words are noise. The validity claim is justness, cultural fit. Its. Cultural meanings leave exterior correlates: records, buildings, technologies, institutions. The validity claim is functional fit. The settled frame: one holon with four inseparable aspects, each with its own validity claim, and Wilber's own sentences. This is the shareable image.

Wilber's four quadrants come from two distinctions: interior and exterior, and individual and collective. To show that they are four sides of one thing rather than four things, he takes a single thought round all four. From within, it is a meaning only I can tell you. From outside, it is a pattern of brain activity. Shared, it is a meaning that depends on a common language. Socially, it has correlates in institutions and structures. Each side is known in its own way and makes its own kind of validity claim:

"…my 'single' thought, the original holon, is not really a single thought as such, but rather a holon with four inseparable aspects (intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social), each with its own validity claims…"

Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), ch. 4

The thought and every sentence in the windows are Wilber's. The "windows", the small drawings and the how-to-find-out lines are this wiki's. More: The Four Quadrants.

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