Towards an Integral Perspective on World Politics: Secularism,Sovereignty and the Challenge of Global Ecology

Abstract

Modernity's emblematic faith in technology, the doctrine of progress, the centrality of instrumental reason, the sanctity of individual freedom, the denial of the sacred — all of these have been suggested as sources of an environmentally destructive cultural tendency. The common ground uniting all of these beliefs is the secular worldview, a historically specific story about reduction of reality to matter, the triumph of human reason over the vagaries of nature, and the colonization of space and time by material progress. Rather than reverting to a pre-modern worldview or promoting a deconstructive postmodernism that would reduce all worldviews to mere discourse, I draw upon the neglected understandings of evolutionary idealism to move towards a new story. Starting with the premise that consciousness is ontologically prior to action, I draw upon the works of G.W.F. Hegel, Sri Aurobindo, Jean Gebser and Ken Wilber to trace the outlines of an alternative metaphysic to secularism. The integral worldview, which understands history as Spirit in the process of becoming, offers such an alternative, one that moves beyond but also includes the secular story within its scope.