the development of beliefs vs . capacities : Post ‐ metaphysics and second tier skillfulness 1

Introduction This article explores what an integral or second tier approach to belief-holding might entail. What do integralists believe and want others to believe? What relationship to belief (and knowledge, truth, and certainty) might be characteristic of "integral" or "second tier" consciousness? Current developments in Integral Theory (including "Wilber-5" and allusions to post-Wilberian integral theories) are fundamentally concerned about epistemology and method–i.e. questions such as "How do we know?" "What can we know is true or real?" and "How do we justify and promote what we think is true or good?" Any deep investigation into such questions entails developmental, philosophical, psycho-therapeutic, social, and ethical concerns. The ultimate concern is not so much with how we develop beliefs within the integral community, but in how we intend to disseminate or build up worldviews, knowledge, or capacity in our attempts to be of service to the wider circle of humanity (and kosmos). Certainly the goal is not to turn as many of "them" into "us" as we can–or is it? To contextualize these general questions, in Part I of this article I will focus on a specific domain of integral beliefs and models: human development. In Part II will focus on what it might mean to enact a post-metaphysical stance to belief-holding, which is an important aspect of second tier development. Perhaps the most prominent big idea or foundational principle of integral theories (broadly construed) is that human capacity, along with everything else in the universe, develops and evolves, and does so in ways that are now partially understood. Along with this is a common belief that this evolution (often described as being towards increasing complexity and connectivity) is quasi-teleological or spiritual (or soteriological)—that the cosmic progression of matter, which begot life, and the evolution of life, which begot consciousness, and the evolution of consciousness through human history, and finally the development of consciousness in each individual, are all pointing toward something ever more adequate, more in-spirited, more wonderful, or, at the teleological extreme, cosmologically meant to be or wanting to become. The predominant integral narratives, which I assume my readers know well, describe a sequence of levels of worldviews, value-systems, and/or capacities that people (cultures or