Including the Good, the Truth and the Beautiful in the New Sociological Dialogue By Giorgio Piacenza Cabrera

There's a sociological intellectual effervescence currently in Per and Latin America. Generally speaking, it is a series of attempts to leave behind the shackles of modern reductionist thinking and to generate a regional intellectual contribution to sociology in the world. A holistic sense is perceived against the decline of latter-phase global capitalism; an intercultural horizontal dialogue with original wisdom keepers is appreciated and there's greater emphasis upon society as (at least partially) self-generating, autopoietic system and upon intersubjective creation of meaning or constructionism. This seems to be a postmodern response to the world of ideas with a regional interpretation but people's minds may be flexible enough to accommodate something beyond "postmodern." They may be able to recognize the emerging importance of a much less reductionist, much less perspective-exclusivist worldview and model called "Integral Theory." The intellectual movement tries to generate a creatively adaptive response to today's global structural crisis. Professor Anibal Quijano and Universidad Ricardo Palma are part of this debate. This movement is anti-reductionist and in a way which is compatible with postmodern, horizontal thinking- includes "autopoiesis" applied to society as well as intersubjective meaning-making. There's open criticism of the current state of global capitalism and (a related criticism of Eurocentric cultural hegemony and epistemology) includes a criticism of Marxism. Local intellectuals may be flexible enough to recognize Integral Theory as representing the next stage of intellectual discourse and praxis in the world of ideas in general and of Sociology in particular. Their response may add to that model fresh new elements and perspectives. Steve McIntosh, inspired by Ken Wilber, Immanuel Kant, Max Weber, Jrgen Habermas and Alfred North Whitehead presents deep information with some ingredients needed to refine the creation of what Anbal Quijano would call an "anthropo-historical mutation". McIntosh sees that those thinkers recognized something fundamental behind the movement of change (physical, historical, social, personal and cultural), something that can include all aspects with which we understand and value experience and (in a broad sense, according to "ancient knowledge") all of Life. That "something" could be quite compatible with a worldview or cosmovision of our original peoples which today is sometimes also called "holistic". Perhaps we need to call it 'principle' and it would be based on a tri-unity which following Plato could also be called the Good, Beauty, Truth; three principles of ontological and epistemological expression. I think that integrally "knowing" about this is key for the creation of an emergent Latin American and world sociology which would be anti-reductionist not only by prioritizing intersubjective-hermeneutic and systemic ideas (the latter inspired by the systemic vision of Maturana, Prigogine and others) as is being currently discussed in certain Latin American forums today in order to leave reductionist thinking its culturally colonizing, modern-European origin. Julio Meja Navarrete in "Society and Knowledge (p. (70) referring to the type of "social research that observes subjects who are active, that perform interpretations of their world" brings to mind sociologists Immanuel Wallerstein and Max Weber with regard to the integration of the factual reality with meaning. The reenchantment of the world would claim a social knowledge of valuation character, i.e. a knowledge that is true and, at the same time, good and beautiful.

Philosopher Ken Wilber recognition of "quadrants" (allegedly Ken is the most translated non-fiction author from the United States) represent any event, experience, or thing (in other words, any "holon") under the always correlated and inseparable aspects and perspectives of the subjective (inner and individual), the objective (outer and individual), the intersubjective (inner and plural) and the interobjective (outer and plural) which are a potential source of disclosure, knowledge, interpretation, experience and theory making in the emerging post post-modern intellectual discourse to understand Life and regenerate philosophy under patterns that would no longer be exclusivist but truly intercultural, timeless and universal. Well, these four ways of understanding "reality" (which also are four ways reality expresses) can be summarized in the quadrants relating to the Truth, Beauty and Good. The subjective quadrant would correspond to the value category of Beauty" and of the intimatepersonal knowledge which is emotional and of the heart. The objective quadrant (used in classical science which measures external objects) and the interobjective (Science systemic or organizational systems linking objects) would correspond to the evaluative category of "Truth" and to the appreciation or type of knowledge of the intellect, the logos and the correlation between our models and the thing outside which is empirically observable. The intersubjective quadrant (cultural, hermeneutic) would correspond to the evaluative category of the "Good," which is of Justice in the interpersonal relationship of the common agreement. While (already incorporating the intersubjective and the interobjective to transcend the theoretical canons of reductionist modern-european pertaining to quantitative analysis) Peruvian and latin American sociology (following the contributions of Anbal Quijano, Inmanuel Wallerstein and others) already recognize more aspects without which reality and perception of reality would be incomplete. However, they lack the integral assessment that recognizes and includes the importance and the contribution of all the "quadrants" that is, of the three aspects of "Beauty", "Truth" and the "Good". Today, leaving behind rigid theoretical models which were initially (since the 19th Century) focused in the 'objective' quadrant we live in the recognition of quadrants according to postmodern thought. The importance of inter subjectivity and of systems in the study and the sociological endeavor is being now recognized. It is a consciousness aperture which Wilber would call "green" and it would be related to emphasize the aspect of equality or horizontality among communicants. It is a "holistic" consciousness manifested in social science when the importance of "relationship" is privileged. Systemic theories (which normally focus on the relationship between objects) are also more recognized because they serve to understand relationships of autopoiesis applied to society. The next step to actually withdraw from the exclusivity of reductionism and to give the cultural and epistemological "descolonializador (decolonizing) movement" a more complete creative base will be to recognize all of the "quadrants" and their internal coordination by a common order. It will mean not privileging one or more methods from a school of thought or theoretical model generated from a particular quadrant perspective over others. It will also mean recognizing the evolving capacity of personal consciousness capacity to be able to entertain and identify its creative work with themes, values and (mental and physical) objects with an ego identification which not only is world centric, global or planetary (initially proper to the modern mindset and furthermore of the postmodern) but also transystemic and eventually kosmos centric.

Sources McIntosh, Steve (2007). The Natural Theology of Beauty, Truth and Goodness. http://www.integralworld.net/mcintosh4.html Meja Navarrete, Julio (2009). Sociedad y Conocimiento. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.