Infallibility Is So Damn Appealing

Abstract

This article is a reply to Ken Wilber's (1989b), "God Is So Damn Boring' and an elaboration upon my original article, "The Deified Self: A 'Centaur' Response to Wilber and the Transpersonal Movement" (Schneider, 1987). The focus of this article is on Wilber's increasing use of pragmatism to justify his metaphysical claims, in particular, "ultimate" claims. This inclination is misguided on several grounds: (a) "'Ultimate" claims cannot be defined in terms that transcend the existential level; (b) "ultimate" functioning cannot be reconciled with concrete (fallible) functioning; (c) "ultimate" awareness cannot be validated scientifically (e.g., phenomenologically or hermeneutically), despite Wilber's efforts to show otherwise; (d) historical sages cannot be clearly differentiated from the psychologically dysfunctional; and (e) motivation still cannot be reconciled with consummate functioning.

One always pays dearly and terribly when religions... insist on having their own sovereign way, when they themselves want to be ultimate ends and not means among other means.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, 1966, p. 74

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