Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein: CosmoErotic Humanism – Philosophy in a Time Between Worlds

Download the PDF Version of the Paper

This brief paper (2020) represents an overview of the project of CosmoErotic Humanism, which is a philosophical orientation conceived here as an emergent aspect of the historical moment. We view this moment as a kind of Da Vinci moment, when new syntheses and sciences become possible, when new worldviews can emerge. We are poised between potential dystopia and utopia, a position rooted in global intimacy disorder (who are we?) and a consequent global action paralysis or confusion (what should we do?), which itself is sourced in a foundational collapse of narrative frameworks including a shared universe story and its derivative narratives of identity, community, sexuality, purpose, and power (what is the nature of reality?).

When looking at the world situation, our first reaction is to ask about what, who, and how? What has happened? Who has gotten our civilization into this? How can it be helped or changed for the better? These questions are essential, and we encourage people to ask them. However, there is a more important question that is asked less often, which is: when is it? Which is to say: when are we? Or more basically: what time is it?

It is time for a change. We live in a time between worlds; a time of almost unbearable intensity, potential, and change.

Figure: Timeline displaying secular cycles of world hegemonic organization during seven centuries of the capitalist world system (based on Arrighi; Wallerstein), as nested within dynamics of media and cultural evolution (based on McLuhan; Gebser). Two epochs represent a convergence of metahistorical trends marking major transformations and can thus be characterized as “time between worlds”.

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Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein: CosmoErotic Humanism – Philosophy in a Time Between Worlds2024-07-03T12:24:03-07:00

Zak Stein, Marc Gafni, & Barbara Marx Hubbard: On the Moral Phenomenology of Participating in the Evolution of the Kosmos

Social Justice and Superorganisms
Read the Paper HERE
Zak Stein, Marc Gafni, & Barbara Marx Hubbard: On the Moral Phenomenology of Participating in the Evolution of the Kosmos2023-06-17T14:25:27-07:00

Dr. Zachary Stein’s White Paper: Love in a Time Between Worlds

On the Metamodern “Return” to a Metaphysics of Eros

What is the world?
What is my mind?
Can I really know love?
Can I really know what is out there, what reality actually is?
How do we move humanity forward at this time of great existential crisis?

These are questions Zachary Stein asks in his paper Love in a Time Between Worlds: On the Metamodern “Return” to a Metaphysics of Eros as he turns the reader’s attention towards a metamodern metaphysics, or a new way at looking at reality.

Metamodern being the era of time we are now in where we are aware of the scope of the crises we face together and we are aware of the lack of a powerful cultural narrative.

“The term metamodern is used simply to describe the structure of what is emerging “after postmodernism;” it points out the new personalities, cultures, and theories that are able to critique and integrate the insights of both the modern and the postmodern.”

Metaphysics being the stories we tell about ourselves and about the universe.

“Believe it or not, there are metaphysical systems that survived postmodernism and popped out of the far end of the 1990’s with “truth” and “reality” still intact. These include object-oriented ontology and dialectical critical realism, among others. Metaphysics can be practiced after Kant and Darwin only by theorizing beyond what is thought of as acceptable in postmodernism and late-stage capitalism, as I discuss in the first section below.”

CosmoErotic Humanism, as is expertly detailed in A Return to Eros, by Kristina Kincaid and Marc Gafni, is a species of metamodern metaphysics, or, simply put, we need to embrace telling the most ultimate stories about ourselves, and about the universe. If we don’t do that, we will stay stuck in hyperobject problems, problems that are huge objects, extended over mass space and time, and effecting us all the time, like global climate change, racism and ineffectual politics.

From respecting science as an indispensable form of knowing, to seeing that science is always contextual and truth always tentative; that reality always holds deeper truths, to a systems view of life, to panpsychism, that consciousness is everywhere in the universe and “as real” as matter and space, Stein opens the door for us to personally more deeply enter into these big questions in our own lives and communities.

Kristina Amelong

Read the Paper HERE
Dr. Zachary Stein’s White Paper: Love in a Time Between Worlds2023-06-17T15:01:24-07:00

A List of White Papers & Articles by Dr. Zachary Stein

Dr. Zachary Stein is the Co-President of the Center.

He studied philosophy and religion at Hampshire College, and then educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education at Harvard University. While a student at Harvard, he co-founded what would become Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to the research-based, justice-oriented reform of large-scale standardized testing in K-12, higher-education, and business.

He has published two books.  Social Justice and Educational Measurement was based on my dissertation and traces the history of standardized testing and its ethical implications. His second book,  Education in a Time Between Worlds, expands the philosophical work to include grappling with the relations between schooling and technology more broadly. He also writes for peer-reviewed academic journals across a range of topics including the philosophy of learning, educational technology, and integral theory. His work has appeared in a variety of journals including, American PsychologistNew Ideas in PsychologyMind, Brain, and Education, Integral Review, and the Journal of Philosophy of Education. 

Teaching is one of his greatest pleasures, which he has enjoyed doing at Harvard University,  Meridian University, and JFK University. His invited speaking engagements span a wide range of venues, from metamodern podcasts to the National Security Agency and off-the-grid spiritual retreat centers. Partial curriculum vitae: CV_Stein_Winter2015

These days:

  • He is co-founder of The Consilience Project, which is dedicated to improving public sensemaking and building a movement to radically upgrade digital media landscapes.
  • He is a scholar at the Ronin Institute, where he researches the relations between education, human development, and the evolution of civilizations.
  • He serves as Co-President and  Academic Director of the activist think tank at the Center for Integral Wisdom, where he writes and teaches at the edges of integral meta theory.
  • He acts on the scientific advisor boards of technology start-ups, where he uses his expertise in ethics and human development to help guide innovation.
  • He offers human development and learning science consultations to schools, organizations, and educational technology companies.

A List of Publications from His Website

Stein, Z. (2019). If education is not the answer you are asking the wrong question: why it’s time to see planetary crises as a species-wide learning opportunity. Transformative Educational Alliance. LondonPerspectiva Press. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2019). The education commodity proposition. Allies for Education. 2(2). [full text]

Stein. Z. (2019). Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and Society. San Fransisco: Bright Alliance. [intro]

Stein, Z. (2018). Love in a Time Between Worlds: On the Metamodern “Return” to a Metaphysics of Eros. Integral Review, 4(1). [pdf]

Stein, Z. & Gafni, M. (2017). The Apocalypse of the modern world system and related possibilities for democratizing enlightenment. Spanda Journal. 2(1) pp.93-103. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2016). Social justice and educational measurement: John Rawls, the history of testing, and the future of education. New York: Routledge. [intro]

Stein, Z. & Gafni, M. (2015). Reimagining humanity’s identity: responding to the second Shock of existence. World Future Review. 7(1) 1-10. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2015). Beyond nature and humanity: reflections on the emergence and purposes of metatheories. In Bhaskar, Esbjorn-Hargens, Hedlund-de Witt & Hartwig (Eds.) Metatheory for the 21st century: critical realism and integral theory in dialogue. New York: Routledge. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2015). Integral theory, pragmatism and the future of philosophy. In Dancing with Sophia: Integral approaches to philosophy. Schwartz & Esbjörn-Hargens (Ed.).  SUNY press. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2015). On the use of the term Integral. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 9(2) 103-113. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2014). Tipping the scales: social justice and educational measurement. (doctoral dissertation). Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Cambridge, MA. [pdf]

Despain, H. & Stein, Z. (2014). Financialization and crises tendencies in higher education: what is college for anyway? Post-Keynesian Economics Forum. August, 12. Available at: pke-forum.com

Stein, Z. (2014). Social justice and educational measurement: a thumbnail sketch. International Objective Measurement workshop, Philadelphia, PA. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2014). On spiritual books and their readers: a review of Integral KabbalahIntegral Review. (10)1, 168-178. [pdf]

Stein, Z., Dawson, T., Van Rossum, Z., Hill, S., & Rothaizer, J. (2014). Virtuous cycles of learning: using formative, embedded, and diagnostic developmental assessments in a large-scale leadership program. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 9(1) 1-11 [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2013). Ethics and the new education: psychometrics, biotechnology, and the future of human capital. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 8(3-4) 146-163  [pdf]

Connell, M., Stein, Z., & Gardner, H. (2012). Bridging between brain science and educational practice with design patterns. In Della Sala & Anderson (Eds.) Neuroscience in education. (pp. 267-286). Oxford University Press. [pdf]

Dawson, T.L. & Stein, Z. (2011). We are all learning here: cycles of research and application in adult development. In Hoare (Ed). Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Learning and Development. (pp. 447-461). Oxford University Press. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2011). On spiritual teachers and teachings. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 6(1), 57-77. [pdf]

Stein, Z., della Chiesa, B. Hinton, C., Fischer, K.W. (2011). Ethical issues in Educational Neuroscience: Raising Children in a Brave New World. In Illes & Sahakian (Eds). Oxford Handbook of Neuroethics. (pp. 803-823). Oxford University Press. [pdf]

Stein, Z., Dawson, T.L., Fischer, K.W. (2010). Redesigning testing: operationalizing the new science of learning. In Khine & Saleh (Eds.) The new science of learning: computers, cognition, and collaboration education. (pp. 207-224). Springer Press. [pdf]

Stein, Z. & Fischer, K. (2010). Directions for Mind, Brain, and Education: methods, models, and morality. Educational Philosophy and Theory. Special issue: educational neuroscience. 43(3), 56-66. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2010). State space model for normative systems. Paper accepted but not presented (due to the birth of my niece). Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. St. Louis, MO. [pdf]

Stein, Z. & Hiekkinen, K. (2010). Developmental differences in the understanding of Integral Theory and Practice: Preliminary results form the iTEACH project. Paper presented at Biannual Integral Theory Conference, John F. Kennedy University. Pleasant Hill, CA. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2010). Now you get it, now you don’t: developmental differences in the understanding of  integral theory and practice. In Esbjörn-Hargens (Ed.) Integral theory in action: applied, theoretical, and practical applications of the AQAL model. (pp. 175-203). SUNY University Press. [pdf]

Hogan, M. & Stein, Z. (2010). Structuring thought: an examination of four methods. In Columbus (Ed) The Psychology of Thinking. Nova Science Publishing. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2010). On the normative function of meta-theoretical endeavors. Integral Review. 6(3). 5-22. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2010). On the difference between designing children and raising them: ethics and the use of educationally oriented biotechnologies. Mind, Brain, and Education. 4 (2). 53-67. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2009). Educational crises and the scramble for usable knowledge. Integral Review. 5 (2).  355-367. [pdf]

Stein, Z. & Hiekkinen, K  (2009). Metrics, models, and measurement in developmental psychology. Integral Review. 5(1). 4-24. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2009). Re-setting the stage: introduction to special sections on learning sequences and  developmental theory. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3 (2), 92-93. [pdf]

Fischer, K., Stein, Z., & Hiekkinen, K. (2009). Narrow assessment misrepresent development and misguide policy. American Psychologist. 64(7). 595-600. [pdf]

Stein, Z (2008). On the possibilities of a comprehensive developmental structuralism: the natural, the normal, and the normative. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society. Quebec City, Canada. [pdf]

Stein, Z, Connell, M. & Gardner, H. (2008). Exercising quality control in interdisciplinary education: toward an epistemologically responsible approach. Journal of Philosophy of Education. Special issue: philosophies of learning. 42(3), 401-414. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2008). Myth busting and metric making: Refashioning the discourse about development. Excursus for Integral Leadership Review. Integral Leadership Review. 8(5). [pdf]

Stein, Z & Hiekkinen, K. (2008). On operationalizing aspects of altitude: an introduction to the Lectical Assessment System for Integral researchers. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 3(1), 105-139. [pdf]

Dawson, T, L. & Stein, Z. (2008). Cycles of Research and Application in Science Education. Mind, Brain, and Education. Vol 2, 2. 90-103. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2008). Intuitions of altitude: researching the conditions for the possibility of developmental assessment. Paper presented at Biannual Integral Theory Conference, John F. Kennedy University. Pleasant Hill, CA. [pdf]

Fischer, K., Stein, Z., Stewart, J. (2008) Process and skill: analyzing structures of growth. In Riffert & Sander (Eds.) Researching with Whitehead: System and Adventure. Verlag Karl Alber: Munich. [pdf]

Stein, Z . (2007). Addressing the American problem by modeling cognitive development. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Neural Information Processing Society, Workshop for the Hierarchical Organization of Behavior. Vancouver, Canada. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (2007). Modeling the demands of interdisciplinarity: toward a framework for evaluating interdisciplinary endeavors. Integral Review, 4, 92-107. [pdf]

Dawson, T. L., Fischer, K. W., & Stein, Z. (2006). Reconsidering qualitative and quantitative research approaches: A cognitive developmental perspective. New Ideas in Psychology, 24, 229-239. [pdf]

Dawson-Tunik, T. L., Fischer, K., & Stein, Z. (2004). Do stages belong at the center of developmental theory? A commentary on Piaget’s stages. New Ideas in Psychology, 22, 255-263. [pdf]

In process:

Stein, Z. (in press). Between philosophy and prophecy. To appear in True but partial: Essential criticisms of Integral Theory. Esbjörn-Hargens (Ed.). Forthcoming SUNY press. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (in review). On realizing the possibilities of emancipatory metatheory: beyond the cognitive maturity fallacy, toward an education revolution. In Bhaskar, Esbjorn-Hargens, Hedlund-de Witt & Hartwig (Eds.) Metatheory for the Anthropocene: emancipatory praxis for planetary flourishing: critical realism and integral theory in dialogue, vol 2. New York: Routledge. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (in review). Desperate measures: the global crises of measurement and their meta-theoretical solutions. Paper prepared for the 4th Biannual Integral Theory Conference, Sonoma, CA. July 2015. [pdf] [pdf_slides]

Stein, Z. (in review). Teaching, testing, and the veil of ignorance: Rawlsian thought experiments for use in the organized resistance to high-stakes testing . Pensamiento EducativoRevista De Investigación Educacional Latinoamericana. [pdf]

Stein, Z. (still as slides). The Development of Measurement Technologies and The Evolution of Consciousness.  Paper prepared for the Society of Consciousness Studies Conference. Yale University. New Haven CT. June 2015. [pdf]

A List of White Papers & Articles by Dr. Zachary Stein2023-06-19T08:12:27-07:00

Dr. Zachary Stein: Idea Seed Banks, the “Nous Arc,” and the “Great Library”

Idea Seed Banks, the “Nous Arc,” and the “Great Library”What do we need to give “our children” so they can prosper and grow into their highest potential—even though we don’t know what kind of challenges they will face in their lives?

That’s the real question underlying this beautiful talk by our Academic Director Zak Stein.

Watch and listen to this fascinating thought experiment:

What would be a “seed bank” of ideas that—if preserved—would allow us to recreate civilization from the ground up, in case humanity survived some sort of an apocalypse?

Playing off of Noah’s Arc, Zak calls it the “Nous Arc.”

Engaging in this thought experiment a bunch of questions arise:

  • Who gets to decide what should be in there?
  • What should be the content of this “Great Library?” or in other words:
  • How can we assure that we give the next generation everything they need?

The Need for Meta-Theories

In order to engage these questions, we need Meta-Theories. What are Meta-Theories?

While theories take the world as data, Meta-Theories take theories as data. Meta-Theories norm the norms of discourse.

Listen to this exciting 20-minute talk and learn:

  • What a new legitimate model of teacherly authority and intergenerational transmission could be
  • How our image of the ideal human looks like that we can teach into
  • Why we need a theory of Cosmos and Self
  • Which educational environments we need to create—in contrast to the informational environments that are stressful for most nervous systems

Enjoy the talk:

Dr. Zachary Stein: Idea Seed Banks, the “Nous Arc,” and the “Great Library”2023-06-21T12:16:12-07:00

Unique Selves in a Self-Organizing Universe: A Politics of Evolutionary Love by Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein

From an unedited draft of the forthcoming book Towards a New Politics of Evolutionary Love

by Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein

Dixit-Motiwala-unsplashThe core structural principle from Integral Meta-Theory involved in the formation of a Unique Self Symphony is the scientific principle of self-organization. The idea of self-organization is according to many the single most important scientific idea to emerge in the last sixty years. It exists at every level of reality and across all four quadrants. While many scientific accounts focus only on self-organization in systems and structures in biology or cybernetics (i.e., Lower-Right reductionism), there is a whole history of work in psychology and social theory dedicated to modeling how minds and cultures are complex dynamical systems, that evolve and self-organize in remarkable ways.

Multiple scientific fields, when held in an Integral embrace, tell us that self-organization is a basic principle of reality at all levels. Most forms of evolutionary emergence are a function of this ubiquitous tendency of all life and matter toward self-organization. This leads to the idea of an inherently creative cosmos, always evolving and organizing at higher and higher levels. Throughout the evolution of the world it appears that self-organization is often catalyzed via the leveraging of uniqueness. When you look at the emergence of complex processes in nature that display remarkable forms of self-organization, such as an ecosystem like swamp or rainforest, they are always complex symbiotic systems in which there are an endless number of unique niches.

This is why one of the core ideas behind the new politics of outrageous love is enabling self-organization at the level of human culture. So we must ask, what enables self-organization at the level of human culture? The answers is clear and in keeping with both the best of what we know about evolutionary theory and the best of our ideas for political and personal Enlightenment: the catalyst of self-organization in human socio–cultural systems is the Unique Self. Paradoxically, this means that the “shape” every human needs to assume in order to contribute to the creation of a healthy social organism is unique. Strange as it may sound, a just and healthy society needs to “socially engineer” for uniqueness, especially the institutions that shape human personalities and self-understandings: schools, news media, entertainment industries, computer technologies industries, etc. The whole social system would be like an incubator for uniqueness.

READ MORE
Unique Selves in a Self-Organizing Universe: A Politics of Evolutionary Love by Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Zachary Stein2023-09-12T09:57:06-07:00

Dr. Zak Stein on the Global Crises of Measurement

Whose Measures, Whose Future?

By Dr. Zak Stein

The post-modern world is overrun with measures and standards. And although we may not realize it, much of the anomie and injustice of the post-modern lifeworld is a result of the proliferation of measures and standards. Today we do not face the pathology of the “one-dimensional man” who is distorted to fit into one or a few abstract standards (although in some places and institutions, we still face that). The post-modern condition involves the fragmentation humanity, a multi-perspectival personality, refracted through a prism of standardized differentiations and mass-customizations…. Here is more footage from the ITC. The whole video can be purchased through the Meta-Integral Foundation.

I’ve placed the relevant excerpts from the paper below: Stein, Z. (in review). Desperate measures: the global crises of measurement and their meta-theoretical solutions. Paper prepared for the 4th Biannual Integral Theory Conference, Sonoma, CA. July 2015. [pdf] [pdf_slides]

Global Crises of Measurement: Whose Measures, Whose Future?

To help gain an overview the situation with regards to post-modern planetary measurement infrastructures, I’ll follow a common trope in critical meta-theory, from Habermas (1973) and Bhaskar (1993) to Harvey (2014), and talk in terms of a series of crises. What follow are best understood as crisis because they are systemic, endemic, and signal a need for deep structural transformation (in the strictly Wilberian (1995; 1999; 2006) sense of the term, as a need for vertical structural transcendence and reorganization). All of these crises are interconnected, ricocheting between the system and the lifeworld, and around the quadrants and planes of social being. I cannot detail each of the six crises here due to limitations of space, so I offer only overviews and allusions.

Economic crisis: poverty, inequality, and econometrics

It has been known for some time that GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is a simplistic misrepresentation of the health of any national economy; it is also a poor index of cultural modernity, human rights violations, and democracy (Sen, 1982). Yet GDP continues to be discussed in a serious manner and continues to drive national economic agendas. Similarly, most representations of profit, the so-called bottom line, are also gross simplifications of what makes a company valuable. In both cases a simplistic quantitative index is use in summary, and in place of richer qualitative analysis, or even just a more complex quantitative analysis with multiple parameters.

Zak Stein

Read More on Zak’s Blog
Dr. Zak Stein on the Global Crises of Measurement2023-06-19T10:14:30-07:00

Integral Wisdom Blog: Mile-high Manjushri

Integral Wisdom Blog: Mile-high Manjushri2023-06-22T07:50:42-07:00

Zak Stein on the What, How, and Why of Metrics

Zak Stein on the What, How, and Why of Metrics2023-06-22T07:43:42-07:00
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