What do you think?
Rate this book
One Right Answer, Infinite Wrong Answers: Why Humanity Is Addicted to Being Wrong
This is a book about the one objective truth of existence, and the countless subjective falsehoods accepted as true by the vast majority of humanity. This book focuses especially on New Age guru Ken Wilber’s fallacious system, known as Integral Theory, his “theory of everything”, where he attempts to place a wide diversity of mystical theories and the teachings of various gurus into a single framework that supposedly explains everything.
Wilber's system is best summed up in his statement, “I have one major Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody – including me – has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace.”
It is exactly this sentiment that underlies the New Age hegemony of relativism and subjectivism, of everyone having their own experiences, their own path, their own truth. In such a system, it becomes impossible for people to reach the one, absolute, objective truth of existence which grounds everything.
In order to reach the Truth, the task is not to pretend to people that they are all right, but to show where they have gone wrong, where they have strayed from reason and logic, where they have succumbed to irrationalism via emotionalism, sensory empiricism, faith, and mysticism.
Wilber adopts a fully irrationalist stance when he claims that the "enlightened" are what he calls "trans-rational", i.e. they have somehow transcended reason and logic and thus reached the zone, according to Wilber, where they can apprehend Absolute Reality.
In fact, Absolute Reality, insofar as it is intelligible, is nothing but the expression of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and its corollary, Occam's razor. How do we eliminate the infinite wrong answers to existence and reach the one, infallible right answer to existence? It's simplicity itself. The answer to existence is the simplest and most rational possible. Any answer that is not rational is irrational, hence false. Any answer that is not the simplest is wrong because reality would never privilege complexity over simplicity. Reality necessarily follows the path of least resistance, the most economic path. It does not know how to introduce superfluous, needless and pointless complexity.
You will never understand the answer to existence if the "answer" you support is against rationalism and against rational simplicity.
By the way, if you find yourself trying to give reasons why the principle of sufficient reason is wrong, you have already acknowledged the primacy of the principle of sufficient reason, hence you are using the principle of sufficient reason in a futile attempt to refute the principle of sufficient reason. That's pure irrationalism right there. You cannot use reasons to argue against reason.
Wilber's system, and all such systems, reject the principle of sufficient reason, meaning that they are all irrational. Yet all such systems seek to give reasons why they are right and rationalism is wrong, thus proving just how irrational they are.
Anyone who claims that reason can be "transcended" is no longer entitled to furnish reasons for their stance. They must engage in pure faith, irrationalism, emotionalism, empiricism, mysticism - anything other than rationalism. They do not give reasons for their beliefs, they give anti-reasons!
Wilber's system rejects the Occam's razor solution, hence is refuted by the fact that it privileges the complex over the simple. That's exactly why it can be dismissed. Remember, Occam's razor is pure rationalism. It's not compatible with irrationalism, which permits any degree of complexity (nonsense).
Do you see how the game works? It's simplicity itself. It's entirely rational. Hence there is only one right answer to the simplest rational answer. That's why we know what it is!
Wilber's system is best summed up in his statement, “I have one major Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody – including me – has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace.”
It is exactly this sentiment that underlies the New Age hegemony of relativism and subjectivism, of everyone having their own experiences, their own path, their own truth. In such a system, it becomes impossible for people to reach the one, absolute, objective truth of existence which grounds everything.
In order to reach the Truth, the task is not to pretend to people that they are all right, but to show where they have gone wrong, where they have strayed from reason and logic, where they have succumbed to irrationalism via emotionalism, sensory empiricism, faith, and mysticism.
Wilber adopts a fully irrationalist stance when he claims that the "enlightened" are what he calls "trans-rational", i.e. they have somehow transcended reason and logic and thus reached the zone, according to Wilber, where they can apprehend Absolute Reality.
In fact, Absolute Reality, insofar as it is intelligible, is nothing but the expression of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and its corollary, Occam's razor. How do we eliminate the infinite wrong answers to existence and reach the one, infallible right answer to existence? It's simplicity itself. The answer to existence is the simplest and most rational possible. Any answer that is not rational is irrational, hence false. Any answer that is not the simplest is wrong because reality would never privilege complexity over simplicity. Reality necessarily follows the path of least resistance, the most economic path. It does not know how to introduce superfluous, needless and pointless complexity.
You will never understand the answer to existence if the "answer" you support is against rationalism and against rational simplicity.
By the way, if you find yourself trying to give reasons why the principle of sufficient reason is wrong, you have already acknowledged the primacy of the principle of sufficient reason, hence you are using the principle of sufficient reason in a futile attempt to refute the principle of sufficient reason. That's pure irrationalism right there. You cannot use reasons to argue against reason.
Wilber's system, and all such systems, reject the principle of sufficient reason, meaning that they are all irrational. Yet all such systems seek to give reasons why they are right and rationalism is wrong, thus proving just how irrational they are.
Anyone who claims that reason can be "transcended" is no longer entitled to furnish reasons for their stance. They must engage in pure faith, irrationalism, emotionalism, empiricism, mysticism - anything other than rationalism. They do not give reasons for their beliefs, they give anti-reasons!
Wilber's system rejects the Occam's razor solution, hence is refuted by the fact that it privileges the complex over the simple. That's exactly why it can be dismissed. Remember, Occam's razor is pure rationalism. It's not compatible with irrationalism, which permits any degree of complexity (nonsense).
Do you see how the game works? It's simplicity itself. It's entirely rational. Hence there is only one right answer to the simplest rational answer. That's why we know what it is!
225 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 23, 2020
4 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 27, 2020
Dare to Know
I used to believe people wanted the truth, at least for themselves if not for others. It has been a rude awakening to discover just how mendacious humanity actually is. I made the mistake of projecting my own insatiable desire to understand existence and the universe onto the world. This book by David Sinclair has further opened my mind to a stark reality, that most people don't really want the truth. What they want is to wallow in petty narcissism and self-delusion. Anything to avoid doing the intellectually rigorous hard work required to seriously challenge their own cherished beliefs in order to acquire genuine knowledge and arrive at a rational understanding of objective truth and reality. Faith, prayer and meditation are so much easier, but completely worthless in the pursuit of truth and knowledge.
Truth is not for everybody, nor is it a popularity contest. Be brave. Be bold. Be better. Break the cycle of ignorance and self-deception. Read this book. Try reason. Do the math. It may be difficult, but in the end you will not regret it.
I used to believe people wanted the truth, at least for themselves if not for others. It has been a rude awakening to discover just how mendacious humanity actually is. I made the mistake of projecting my own insatiable desire to understand existence and the universe onto the world. This book by David Sinclair has further opened my mind to a stark reality, that most people don't really want the truth. What they want is to wallow in petty narcissism and self-delusion. Anything to avoid doing the intellectually rigorous hard work required to seriously challenge their own cherished beliefs in order to acquire genuine knowledge and arrive at a rational understanding of objective truth and reality. Faith, prayer and meditation are so much easier, but completely worthless in the pursuit of truth and knowledge.
Truth is not for everybody, nor is it a popularity contest. Be brave. Be bold. Be better. Break the cycle of ignorance and self-deception. Read this book. Try reason. Do the math. It may be difficult, but in the end you will not regret it.
September 26, 2023
Beware of false Messiahs
Ken Wilber is simply another guru who with his subjective theories and in the light of liberal political correctness, accepting the other and turning the other cheek sees his integral theory as one where everyone is right, however some are more right - those at the top of the spiral - where he sits.
Everybody cannot be right. That's a fact. Everyone can be right relative to their current state of consciousness, i.e a child can be right regarding his childish needs. A Jew or a Muslim can be right relative to their state of unconsciousness, lack of self-awareness and tools for critical thinking. However relative to the absolute Truth they are entirely wrong. Only those who adhere to the PSR and OccM's Razor are correct and capable of tuning to the Truth in an objective manner.
Ken Wilber is simply another guru who with his subjective theories and in the light of liberal political correctness, accepting the other and turning the other cheek sees his integral theory as one where everyone is right, however some are more right - those at the top of the spiral - where he sits.
Everybody cannot be right. That's a fact. Everyone can be right relative to their current state of consciousness, i.e a child can be right regarding his childish needs. A Jew or a Muslim can be right relative to their state of unconsciousness, lack of self-awareness and tools for critical thinking. However relative to the absolute Truth they are entirely wrong. Only those who adhere to the PSR and OccM's Razor are correct and capable of tuning to the Truth in an objective manner.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews