The overall integral movement is a rapidly growing global movement of multiple flavors and perspectives creating the movement's integral commons. In the Integral movement there are many contributing individual sources for the ideas, principles and processes for what has become today's integral philosophy and integralized universe worldview. Some individuals listed below have made one or more minor contributions while other have made one or more major contributions.
Below are the Integral Pioneers -- those spiritual practitioners and thinkers, and those political and cultural leaders who, throughout world history and in all cultures of the planet, are the forerunners of the integral worldview that is only now emerging as a cultural movement. We designate them as "integral" because they were exemplary in their ability to live from, or to articulate, the entire spectrum of consciousness -- that is, the levels of matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit. Equally important is that these pioneers of the spirit are those who were in some way deeply concerned or connected with the four major domains of the kosmos (i.e., the interior and exterior of the individual and collective), or, what is simply known as the "Big Three": the self ("I"), culture ("we"), and nature ("it") -- also designated as Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
This present list of integral pioneers would then, by strict definition, exclude those who are known primarily or only for spiritual or transpersonal achievements (thus honorably eliminating some of the founders of world religions). Finally, this list of integral men and women includes those who demonstrate a strong tendency to be global or world-centric in their point of view -- even in the earlier epochs of the history of humankind.
Many individuals listed below did not ever consider or know that their work would ever become adopted by today's integral practioners.
__Postmodern Integral Pioneers__
These postmodern visionaries were world-centric and integral in thought and practice, able to access the entire spectrum of consciousness, and worked to unify science, philosophy and religion as a way to express or articulate a vision of the kosmos.
William James, American philosopher-psychologist, 1842-1910
Henri Bergson, French philosopher-evolutionist, 1859-1941
Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician & philosopher, 1861-1947
James Mark Baldwin, American psychologist, 1861-1914
Rudolf Steiner,German occultist & social philosopher, 1861-1925
Mohandas Gandhi,Indian statesman-philosopher, 1869-1948
Aurobindo Ghose, Indian philosopher-evolutionist, 1872-1950
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist, 1875-1961
Ananda Coomaraswamy, Indian art historian, 1877-1947
Aldous Huxley, English author & philosopher perennis, 1894-1963
Simone Weil, French philosopher & mystic, 1909-1943
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French Jesuit philosopher-scientist, 1881-1955
Eleanor Roosevelt, American first lady & humanitarian, 1884-1962
Modern "Mystical" Physicists, e.g., Einstein, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Bohr, et al. global physicists, fl. 1920-1950
Jean Gebser, Swiss cultural philosopher, 1905-1973
Arthur Koestler,English writer-philosopher, 1905-1983
Abraham Maslow,American psychologist, 1908-1970
Martin Luther King, American statesman, 1929-1968
Willis Harman, American noetic philosopher, 1918-1997
Clare W. Graves, Developmental Psychologist (1914-1986)
Jurgen Habermas, German Social Philosopher (1929)
Currently Integral Philosopher-Evolutionists:
Ken Wilber, Don Beck, Allan Combs, Lawrence Wollersheim, Steve McIntosh, David Ray Griffin, Frank Visser, Yasuhiko Kimura, Alan Kazlev, Fred Kofman, Brad Reynolds, Carter Phipps, Craig Hamilton and Andrew Cohen.
Edgar Morin, French philosopher and sociobiologist
Vandana Shiva, Indian physicist, ecofeminist, and environmental activist
Charlene Spretnak, American ecofeminist philosopher
Fritjof Capra, Austrian-born American physicist and systems thinker
Winona LaDuke, Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, and writer.
Joanna Macy, American Buddhist scholar, general systems theorist, and deep ecology philosopher.
__Modern Integral Pioneers__
The general task for these integral pioneers operating after the rise of the European Enlightenment, but prior to the rise of postmodernity in the 20th century, was the differentiation of the Big Three, and their attempted integration in a new synthesis.
__Leonardo Da Vinci__, Italian artist, scientist, engineer, musician, 1452-1519
Wang Yang-Ming, Chinese Neo-Confucianist, 1472-1529
Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, 1548-1600
Blaise Pascal,French scientist & religious philosopher, 1623-1662
Montesquieu,French philosopher, 1689-1755
Voltaire, French philosopher, 1694-1778
Benjamin Franklin,American statesman, scientist, writer, 1706-1790
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, 1724-1804
Thomas Jefferson,American statesman & political philosopher, 1743-1826
Goethe, German poet-philosopher, 1749-1832
William Blake, English poet, artist, philosopher, 1757-1827
Friedrich Schiller, German poet-philosopher, 1759-1805
Georg Hegel,German philosopher-evolutionist, 1770-1831
Friedrich Schelling,German philosopher-evolutionist, 1775-1854
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American transcendentalist philosopher, 1803-1882
John Stuart Mill, British philosopher & economist, 1806-1873
Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist, 1817-1895
Ramakrishna,Hindu mystic & world religionist, 1836-1886
Vivekananda, Hindu swami & world
__Pre-modern Integral Pioneers__
These are forerunners of integralism who lived prior to the rise of science and the European Enlightenment, but who achieved or practiced a vision of global tolerance, universal harmony across religions and cultures, and actual integral living.
Imhotep, Egyptian Priest & Pyramid Architect, c. 2635-2595 BCE
Solomon, Hebrew King, c. 972-932 BCE
PreSocratics, Greek philosophers, c. 600-400 BCE
Confucius, Chinese social philosopher, 551-479 BCE
Socrates-Plato-Aristotle, Greek philosophers, 470-322 BCE
Alexander the Great, Greek King & World Emperor, 356-323 BCE
Asoka, Indian Emperor, 274-232 BCE
Nagarjuna, Buddhist nondual philosopher, c.150-250 CE
Plotinus, Alexandrian Greco-Roman philosopher, 205-270 CE
Neo-Platonists, 1st & 2nd CE Greek, Jewish, Persian philosophers
Hypatia, Egyptian priestess & scientist, 370-415 CE
Ibn Al-Arabi, Sufi mystics & philosopher, 560-638 CE
St. Maximus, Greek/Christian theologian, 580-662 CE
Al-Farabi, Turkish-Persian philosopher, 870-950 CE
Al-Ghazzali, Islamic philosopher, 1059-1111 CE
Chu Hsi, Chinese Neo-Confucianist, 1130-1200 CE
Marsilio Ficino & Giovanni Pico, Italian Renaissance scholar-philosophers, fl. 1490 CE
St. Theresa of Avila, Spanish nun & mystic, 1515-1582 CE
Akbar, Indian Emperor, 1542-1605 CE
Native American Chiefs & Shamans, e.g., Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, Chief Seattle, et al. Native American leaders, fl. 1870 CE
Much of the copy of above is from www.Ikosmos.com and the author Byron Belitsos and is used with permission.
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