The above headline is one that should naturally stimulate healthy doubt...
In the 1600s during the Enlightenment there was a major breakthrough in thinking; rational, logical thought and its accompanying scientific methodology came into being. This allowed for a new way of conceptualizing and managing the world. Even now, 400 years later, we continue to reap the bountiful benefits of that great breakthrough in a new way of thinking. Today we are also on the brink of what might be considered an even greater Second Enlightenment. It is coming into being aided in great part because of a new integral dialectical thinking process that is far more capable of managing today's personal, economic and political interacting complex systems.
With the existing knowledge of the integral and evolutionary movements and the new integral complex system dialectical thinking tools in Otto Laske's new book Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human Systems, we will get there far sooner. Within its pages readers will find an effective, near-complete overview of the newest "Integral/Evolutionary" dialectical thinking processes that may be applied to today's problems and to the interaction of the complex systems of our world.
While the rational logical thinking of the first Enlightenment
was two-dimensional and linear, the new dialectical complex
systems thinking elucidated in Laske's book is what I call
four-dimensional thinking. (Three dimensions plus time.) It also
allows one to deal with the unpredictable spontaneities,
nonlinear and unknown feedback loops and a host of other issues
that arise with multiple and single interacting complex systems.
The information in Measuring Hidden Dimensions shows a
person how to step outside of their own thoughts, problems or
issues in order to consider them objectively by using
twenty-eight different thought forms for redirecting attention
creating four dimensional dialectical thinking. The ability to
think this whole-systems way is clearly a huge advantage in all
areas of life, and is far more effective in dealing with today's
problems than the two-dimensional linear thinking of the first
Enlightenment.
It's no exaggeration to say that Measuring Hidden Dimensions
of Human Systems may be the best book yet written about the
evolution of cognition and evolution and development of
human thinking in general and integral post-postmodernist
thinking systems for the twenty-first century. While Laske stands
on the shoulders of the giants of dialectical thinking like
Hegel, Adorno, and Jaques he is a rare genius who has not only
explained the development of thought through the seamless
integration of multiple perspectives and frameworks, including
psychology, science and, indirectly, the mystical core of
theology, he has also advanced it. Powerful life and
world-rearranging epiphanies by the bucketful await the conscious
reader of this 4D revolution in integral dialectical
thinking.
In addition to providing the most complete integral four-quadrant
complex dialectical thinking system to date, Laske's book guides
the Integral/Evolutionary movements toward an important new focus
for future development. Many of today's Integral and Evolutionary
leaders focus almost exclusively on consciousness-training or on
how to be a spiritual evolutionary. Yes, consciousness
creates a thought space and communion of the individual to and
with the environment. In many ways consciousness-creation runs
parallel to the concept of communion in the Integral
agency/communion pairing. But integral/evolutionary
consciousness-development or holding without the tool of well
thought-out and planned action lacks the needed agency balance.
And this new dialectical thinking is definitely action!
Laske's complex systems dialectical thinking process provides a
well thought- out "thinking" agency that is needed for any
optimized decision-making process that results in wise action,
thus creating the better future we all seek. There is little
doubt that someday learning the integral dialectical thinking
skills using the Laske's 28 attention-redirecting thought forms
will be an educational requirement for all!
This book has personally allowed me to move with effort and
attention from mostly two-dimensional thinking to much more of
the new four dimensional thinking. It has also helped me to
integrate a vast amount of observations about my life and work in
less time than I ever imagined possible. It even helped me to
evaluate complex personal situations in my life in a whole new
way, either saving me untold trouble and cost or more quickly
motivating me to take wise risks and seize new opportunities that
hold real dialectically- evaluated benefit.
Adoption of this new dialectical thinking system would work
wonders for the Integral/Evolutionary movements as well. A
well-defined and complete integral/evolutionary dialectical
thinking system has been until now a main element that has been
lacking to effectively resolve the challenges of the complex
systems interacting in our world today. Laske's new book provides
exactly that missing element. There is little doubt that this
work is going to spread within our movement and within other
progressive social and activist movements as well.
It is my sincere hope that the Integral/Evolutionary Movement
quickly picks up both Laske's complex-systems dialectical
thinking processes and couples them with the
consciousness-teaching processes found in our movement and more
active social service. This would finally establish another
deeper, much-needed agency/communion balance that could more
readily build the better future we all are seeking.
Laske's book is nothing less than a true gift to humanity! In
time, he will be eventually recognized as the man who did much to
help bring about the second Enlightenment. As amazing as it is,
however, this book also poses a few challenges to its
readers.
Although Laske says that anyone can be taught complex systems
dialectical thinking, I think that this book is a difficult read
for many individuals. Laske's writing style is concept-dense and
demands that you pay careful attention to each initial definition
that he uses. In one paragraph alone he may take you through a
dozen or more interrelated or sequential new thinking conceptual
spaces. In addition to the implied cognitive capacity
requirements there may be social and emotional development
requirements that also play a part in one's ability to understand
and "get" this amazing new dialectical thinking training manual
and tool.
Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human Systems is written
more as an aid to human resources staff and as a training manual
for coaches who will use this new kind of thinking to help their
clients see the world much differently. That said, anyone with a
little extra observational effort will find it useful as a manual
for learning the new dialectical thinking processes.
Individuals with a strong background in developmental psychology
will be in heaven and probably find the book considerably easier
to understand. "Getting" Laske's new book on integral dialectical
thinking will quickly separate the Integral/Evolutionary
beginners and aficionados from the experts, qualified teachers
and dedicated practitioners.
Whether you're an integral evolutionary, spiritual evolutionary,
or eco-evolutionary, or a corporate, government or non-profit
sector leader, I wholeheartedly recommend that you get this book
fast. Once you read it it is not hard to see savvy
Integral/Evolutionary entrepreneurs will be quickly and
discretely scampering to make teaching deals with Laske.
Most of the staff at our organization have already ordered it or
are reading it now. The news is spreading via
word-of-mouth: this book is a must-read for anyone, as optimized
thinking is the best way to create success in most any area. This
book plus Dialectical Thinking and Adult Development by Michael
Basseches will find their way into all of the planet's most
critical thinking applications where one is dealing with analysis
of complex systems. Don't be surprised if you find them both soon
out of stock at Amazon.com or other online booksellers as this
work becomes part of the essential reading of the best and
brightest minds on the planet.
The above review was written by
Lawrence Wollersheim, Executive Director of two
Integral/Evolutionary organizations in San Francisco: Universe
Spirit and the Universe Institute. Lawrence has also published
several books on health, visualization, decision-making and
goal-setting. His newest book, which is soon to be released,
deals with another critical element currently missing from
today's integral and evolutionary movements: the lack of a
universal set of ethical and moral principles which are based
solely on the science-derived principles of the progressive
evolution of the universe.
The universe evolutionary ethics that Lawrence has discovered is
derived from the new Universe Worldview, which embraces the
Integral/Evolutionary Movements. You can learn more about his new
work at the following websites:
www.UniverseSpirit.org
Universe Integral:
http://www.universespirit.org/universe-integral-how-integral-concepts-ar...
www.UniverseCollege.org
www.UniverseInstitute.org
www.UniverseIntegral.org
What 3 Other Reviewers In the Integral/Evolutionary
Movement Are Saying about this New Book
"I highly recommend Dr. Laske's work for integral theorists and
practitioners. His research represents a truly integrative
approach to a number of key aspects of human development and
transformation. He has a great grounding in Kegan's
subject-object theory as well as the powerful European tradition
of dialectics. This book is dense but it is worth the effort."
Sean Esbjorn-Hargens PhD, Executive Editor of the Journal of
Integral Theory and Practice.
At the bottom of this page I've included links to two other
independent reviews of Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human
Systems so that you might see from other perspectives how
important this book is to the future of the Integral/Evolutionary
movements. The first is a brief review by John Stewart that has
just been completed and has not been published previously. The
review begins by identifying the reasons why Laske's work is
highly significant. It then focuses on how Laske's approach can
be greatly enhanced by integrating it with some of the methods
for developing consciousness that can be found in the world's
spiritual and religious traditions. John is one of the
founders of the Progressive Evolution Movement and he is the
author of Evolution's Arrow and the Evolutionary
Manifesto, both of which are essential reading for the more
informed members of the Integral/Evolutionary Movements.
The second review linked below John's is written by Sara Nora
Ross, Ph.D, president of ARINA, publisher of The Integral Process
for Working on Complex Issues and of the journal Integral
Review: A Transdisciplinary and Transcultural Journal for New
Thought, Research, and Praxis.
THE NEW JOHN STEWART REVIEW OF OTTO LASKE'S NEW
BOOK
Otto Laske's work is a very significant contribution to the
emergence of a new and higher level of cognition amongst humans.
This dialectical/systemic cognition will give humanity a
much-needed capacity to better understand and manage complex
systems and processes.
Laske's book, Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human
Systems, promotes our cognitive development by assisting us
to see the limitations of our current levels of thinking.
In particular, it helps us to 'stand outside' our
analytical/rational thinking and to see it as an object.
This enables us to see the limitations of this form of cognition.
It assists us to see why analytical/rational thinking fails to
adequately represent and understand complex systems and
processes. Laske's book then goes on to identify the new forms of
thought that are needed to represent and understand those aspects
of reality that cannot be adequately represented by
analytical/rational thinking.
Analytical/rational thinking is the cognition that spread with
the European Enlightenment and now dominates in Western
societies. However it can represent mentally only those limited
aspects of reality that are relatively mechanistic. It is
incapable of representing complex patterns and processes,
non-linearities, transforming systems, emergence and complex
relationships. Cognition that is unable to represent or
model something is incapable of understanding or managing it, or
even of 'seeing' it.
Dialectical/systemic cognition continues to use
analytical/rational cognition for understanding mechanistic
aspects of reality. But it also models and represents those many
aspects of reality that are more complex and fluid. It represents
and models complex patterns, transforming systems, non-linear
processes etc. The use of these representations is experienced as
intuitions and insights.
The spread of systemic cognition is of critical importance
because:
· Systemic cognition is essential if an
individual is to be able to fully understand the large-scale
evolutionary processes that have shaped humanity and other life
on this planet and that will determine our future. It is
therefore a pre-condition for fully 'getting' the evolutionary
worldview and for experiencing the transformative epiphanies that
accompany this;
· The global crises and challenges that are
confronting humanity cannot be understood and cannot be solved
without a cognitive capacity that enables the management of
complex systems and processes. Analytical/rational
cognition cannot do this;
· True systemic cognition is currently almost
non-existent. Most 'systems thinking' is done with
mental/rational representations and cognition. Post-modern
cognition ('green' in Spiral Dynamics terms) is incapable of
rigorously understanding complex phenomenon, and people at this
level are commonly anti-cognitive.
· It seems unlikely that systemic cognition
will develop quickly enough to meet global challenges unless it
is spread intentionally and consciously.
What is needed is a New Enlightenment. It will be similar to the
first Enlightenment in that it will be driven by a shift to
higher cognition. But this time the shift will be from the
analytical/rational thought of the first enlightenment to
systemic cognition. And the shift will be developed and spread
intentionally and consciously.
Currently there are no widely-accepted approaches to training and
developing higher mind and systemic cognition. The Integral
Movement and spiritual progressives tend to focus on the
development of consciousness, not the development of higher
cognition. Since these movements are almost universally
'green', cognition tends to be part of their shadow.
Most members of these movements do not have the cognitive
development to see that effective responses to global challenges
require a higher level of cognition, not just higher
consciousness. The failure of the Integral Movement and spiritual
progressives to make any significant contribution to resolving
major crises such as global warming is due to their cognitive
limitations. The 'missing piece' that is limiting these movements
is systemic cognition.
As outlined in his book, Otto Laske has developed courses
and supporting materials aimed at training and developing
systemic cognition. The book includes an extraordinarily valuable
Manual of Dialectical Thought Forms that builds on the work of
Michael Basseches and others.
The Manual identifies the classes of things that we have to
represent in our thinking if we are to adequately represent and
understand complex phenomena and processes. It shows us the
things that analytical/rational thought is unable to represent
and understand effectively. It identifies the sorts of
processes to which we must direct our attention if we are to
build adequate mental models of complex systems.
Although Laske's work shows us where we have to direct our
attention to think dialectically and systemically, it does not
include practices that train the ability to freely move attention
to where it is required. It is here that the 'consciousness
movement' can contribute significantly to programs that aim to
train and transmit dialectical/systemic cognition.
More specifically, the development of higher mind can be greatly
accelerated by the use of the kinds of practices promoted by the
world's spiritual and contemplative traditions that develop
consciousness. These practices train the capacity to dis-embed
from lower forms of cognition, freeing attention and
consciousness to access and build higher cognitive
structures.
Together with Victoria Wilding of Symplicitus ( http://symplicitus.com /), I have
been working on the development of an approach to training higher
cognition that synthesizes Laske's approach with practices
appropriated from the spiritual traditions. These 'spiritual'
practices train the ability to:
· Dis-embed from analytical/rational
thinking;
· See analytical/rational thought 'from the
outside' as an object that can be contemplated and
evaluated
. Eventually this enables systemic cognition
itself to be seen as an object that can be contemplated,
evaluated and improved;
· Gain conscious and intentional control over
attention so that it can be moved freely around the aspects of
complex phenomena that are not represented effectively by
analytical/rational thinking; and
· Access and develop non thought-based
cognitive resources, including pattern recognition capacities and
intuition.
These capacities enable the individual to identify the critical
aspects of complex phenomenon that are not represented adequately
by analytical/rational thought. It also enables them to build new
cognitive representations that include what is left out by
analytical thinking. This makes possible the construction
of new mental models that are not solely thought-based and that
can adequately represent complex systems and phenomenon as they
evolve and transform through time.
John Stewart, July 2011
Sara Nora Ross's Review of Laske's book
Sara Nora Ross's review on Laske's book is found at:
http://www.archive-ilr.com/archives-2009/2009-06/2009-06-review-laske.php