21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

is truly one! But of course, even saying that ultimate reality is one thing falls foul of the same problems described above. Jonathan Culler writes about the problem of describing reality in these terms:

‘We are on dangerous ground even with such “innocent” phrases as “All is One”. The Universe is not a whole, nor a collection of parts, but a “holarchy”. An ever-receding domain of wholes within parts within wholes. There is no boundary either “upwards” (to larger groupings of parts) or “downwards” (to increasing fine divisions of wholes).

‘Total context (final Wholeness) is unmasterable, both in principle and in practice. Meaning is context bound, but context is boundless’

Ken Wilber, in commenting on this passage, says this:

‘The mind’s omega point, for each theorist, is the context that they believe cannot be outcontexted, the context beyond which growth or expansion does not or should not proceed… ‘And a final Omega Point? That would imply a final Whole, and there is no such holon anywhere in manifest existence. But perhaps we can interpret it differently. Who knows, perhaps Telos, perhaps Eros, moves the entire Kosmos, and God may indeed be an all-embracing chaotic Attractor, acting…throughout the world by gentle persuasion toward love.’

Ken Wilber — Sex, Ecology, Spirituality

Again, our boundaries and economies are the means deployed in this work of setting contexts and therefore recognising parochial meaning.

23