Free eBooks A Brief History Of Everything: Revised Edition Available To Downloads
ABrief History of Everythingis an altogether friendly and accessible account of men and women's place in auniverse of sex, soul, and spirit, written by an author of whom NewYork Times reporterTony Schwartz says: "No one has described the path to wisdom better thanKen Wilber."Wilberexamines the course of evolution as the unfolding manifestation of Spirit, frommatter to life to mind, including the higher stages of spiritual developmentwhere Spirit becomes conscious of itself. In each of these domains, there arerecurring patterns, and by looking closely at them, we can learn much about thepredicament of our world—and the direction we must take if "globaltransformation" is to become a reality.Wilberoffers a series of striking and original views on many topics of currentinterest and controversy, including the gender wars, modern liberationmovements, multiculturalism, ecology and environmental ethics, and the conflictbetween this-worldly and otherworldly approaches to spirituality. The result isan extraordinary and exhilarating ride through the Kosmos in the company of oneof the great thinkers of our time.
File Size: 2026 KB
Print Length: 579 pages
Publisher: Shambhala Publications; 2 edition (March 15, 2011)
Publication Date: March 15, 2011
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00ATMWJMG
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Not Enabled
Word Wise: Not Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #144,807 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #48 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Modern #105 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Movements > Humanism #352 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Modern
[For full review, see forthcoming, Torosyan, R. (2001). A system for everything: Book review of K. Wilber's Brief History of Everything. New Ideas in Psychology, 19 (3).] Wilber manages to create a sweeping system for everything in life. He describes our spiritual evolution, and our dominant conceptual concerns: East and West, ancient and modern, individual and collective, physical and metaphysical. Wilber writes in an accessible common-sense style. He deliberately avoids a typical scholarly tone. While not free of some pretense at a monolithic voice, his work promotes rich conceptions of self-reflexiveness, interconnection, spirituality and empathy. Wilber shows how the major theories of biological, psychological, cognitive and spiritual development describe different versions of how to find "the truth." At the outset, Wilber refers to Douglas Adams's best-selling cult novel Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. We desire final conclusions, just as Adams facetiously proposed the "answer that would completely explain 'God, life, the universe, and everything'" (p. xv). In the novel, that answer was "42," highlighting the absurdity of seeking such a final answer. Wilber's "answer," instead, is a framework for connecting evolutionary currents. At first, he uses a Socratic dialogue, beginning with "KW" for Wilber and "Q" for the questioner, be s/he reader, fan, or friend. Initially, this appears somewhat contrived. The text pretends to be an interview, when it is clearly the author's own highly controlled construction. Upon further reading, however, the stylistic device helps Wilber engage the reader in a dialogue.
This is a disappointing book. I had read a couple of Wilber's earlier books and liked them, especially the superb "Grace and Grit." At his best, he can be very good at explaining a nondualistic Eastern style philosophy.As the title suggests, this book is meant to introduce people to an all encompassing metaphysical system. No one could attempt such an enterprise without a little hubris. But why stop at a little? Wilber is fond of dropping the names of long lists of famous intellectuals whose work he finds consistent with, but subservient to, his system. Reality is sliced and diced in an endless taxonomy of levels, holons, stages, paradigm shifts, quadrants, centers, spheres and fulcrums before being reassembled into a nondualistic whole. Anyone satisfied with scientific explainations is dismissed as a "reductionist" holding what he calls "an insane world view." The science based world view is not so much argued against as it is insulted, dismissed and misrepresented.The most remarkable thing in this book is it's bizzare description of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. He makes the astonishing claim that very few theorists believe in Darwinian evolution and that, "There is no evidence whatsoever for intermediate (fossil) forms." Wilber maintains it would take at least a hundred simultaneous beneficial mutations for something like a wing to evolve. He claims this would have to occur separately in both a male and a female who would then have to mate successfully. This is a grotesque caricature of Darwinan theory. Anyone who thinks it is adequate should buy this book. Others should read Richard Dawkins "Climbing Mount Improbable." Wilber never names any scientists who advocate this version of evolution for the very good reason that there aren't any.
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