Ken Wilber’s Twenty Tenets

Derived from the Evolutionary Theory Conference Summary, Esalen Center for Theory & Research, November 5-10, 2000

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Evolutionary Theory

• 1. Reality is not composed of things or processes, but of holons, which are wholes that are simultaneously parts.
• 2. Holons display four fundamental capacities:
  • a. self-preservation (agency)
  • b. self-adaptation (communion)
  • c. self-transcendence
  • d. self-dissolution
• 3. Holons emerge.
• 4. Holons emerge holarchically.
• 5. Each holon transcends and includes its predecessors.
• 6. The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower.
• 7. The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is ‘shallow’ or ‘deep;’ and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its ‘span.’
• 8. Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span.
• 9. Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it.
• 10. Holarchies co-evolve. The micro is always within the macro (all agency is agency in communion).
• 11. The micro is in relational exchange with macro at all levels of its depth.
• 12. Evolution has directionality:
  • a. increasing complexity.
  • b. increasing differentiation/integration.
  • c. increasing organization/structuration.
  • d. increasing relative autonomy.
  • e. increasing telos.