Evolution’s Purpose
Utne Reader published an excerpt from the introduction chapter of the book in November 2012. Utne highlighted how “A better understanding of the purpose of evolution will lead directly to a more evolved world.”
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Metanexus Institute, the science and religion foundation, featured a blog post on the book.
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Integral Leadership Review published a review of Evolution’s Purpose and placed it in context with Carter Phipp’s Evolutionaries, and Andrew Cohen’s Evolutionary Enlightenment.
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The Shift Network’s Catalyst Newsletter recommended the book.
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Home Brewed Christianity, the popular progressive Christian website, published a blog on the book and featured a podcast interview of Steve.
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The Cool Twilight Blog reviewed the book.
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The Evolutionary Landscapes Blog reviewed the book.
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Below are the names of luminaries who have endorsed the book. (click on a name to read their endorsement):
Holmes Rolston III, Ph.D., winner of the 2003 Templeton prize and author of Environmental Ethics
“McIntosh is persuasive in his arguments that the scientific facts of evolution cannot stand alone ... science shows that historical evolution, whatever its contingencies, is itself on a trajectory of values development. McIntosh has well-researched his sources and integrated them with seminal insight.”
Ervin Laszlo, Ph.D., Distinguished system scientist, President of the Club of Budapest and author of over 30 books on evolution
“A truly excellent, clear and convincing contribution to our understanding of where evolution is taking us, and in that context, what the deeper meaning may be of the Worldshift we are now facing. Should be read by everyone who is willing to wake up and take a responsible role in shaping our common destiny.”
Allan Combs, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, California Institute of Integral Studies and author of The Radiance of Being and coauthor of Dreamer of the Earth
“Many folks are writing about evolution these days, but few with the vision, intelligence, and even brilliance that Steve McIntosh brings to the table. Thank you, Steve! You are our 21st century Henri Bergson.”
John F. Haught, Ph.D., Professor of Theology Georgetown University and author of God After Darwin
“Steve McIntosh's insightful new book is as readable a "guide for the perplexed" as one can expect to find amidst the many conflicting messages in contemporary thought and culture. Mining the wisdom of traditional philosophies and religions, yet fully conversant with contemporary evolutionary science, McIntosh's fresh synthesis will be helpful to all sincere inquirers.”
Andrew Cohen, author of Evolutionary Enlightenment and founder of EnlightenNext Magazine
“Evolution’s Purpose is a masterpiece! With both uninhibited passion and fierce intellect, philosopher Steve McIntosh deconstructs the materialist paradigm with the precision of an expert neurosurgeon. With gentle persistence and irrefutable logic, he reveals many of the false assumptions in scientific, cultural, and spiritual orientations about our presence in the universe that are less than integral. He takes us on a fascinating journey through the history and evolution of our own conscious and unconscious beliefs, finally delivering us with a truth that is impossible to deny or avoid: We are part of a process that has a direction and through awakening to this life-affirming truth, we discover a sense of purpose that changes everything.”
Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love
“It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by the dramatic turn of world events. Evolution’s Purpose presents another view of the chaos . . . that humanity is evolving in an ultimately purposeful way, lending both meaning and illumination to our individual and collective struggles. Steve McIntosh’s brilliant ideas are both stimulating and comforting, as he lays out a theory of our evolution that is both scientifically and spiritually profound.”
Michael E. Zimmerman, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of Integral Ecology
“Evolution’s Purpose is a moving and profound book that explores the spiritual influences on evolution that are nevertheless consistent with the major tenets of contemporary science. With his clear and accessible prose, Steve McIntosh demonstrates the evolutionary emergence of beauty, truth, and goodness and shows how personal experience confirms the presence of spirit in an evolving cosmos. I highly recommend this book for anyone seeking to make sense of the evolution of cosmos and consciousness.”
Barbara Marx Hubbard, Futurist and founder of The Foundation for Conscious Evolution
“Evolution’s Purpose reaches deep into the living essence of evolution within the cosmos and within ourselves. It gives us strong arguments to carry us beyond the limitations of the neo-Darwinian assertion of no purpose, meaning or direction in evolution; and also beyond the post-modern sense of relativism, by offering a far deeper exploration of the source of purpose itself intrinsic to evolutionary direction. It calls us to become “part of the universal family of conscious evolutionaries who have embarked on the magnificent adventure of experiential perfection.” Most important, this seminal book places the “Evolutionary World View” on the “memetic map” of global culture to guide our generation in the direction of our evolutionary transformation. This is a very important work.”
Carter Phipps, author of Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea and Executive Editor of EnlightenNext Magazine
“In an intellectual environment where the mindset of Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett dominate all discourse when it comes to evolution, Steve McIntosh give us a scientifically literate, philosophically rich, and spiritually potent alternative. His evolutionary vision is a brilliant light of clear thinking in a landscape dimmed by reactionary atheism and dogmatic materialism. Addressing evolution as a powerful context for meaning and purpose, McIntosh expertly shows us how a new and broader understanding of evolution can revolutionize the way we understand not just physical development but social and cultural progress as well. Deeply considered and tightly argued, Evolution’s Purpose presents a powerful message of hope to the modern world, one that renews our love for spirit and restores our faith in the future.”
Martin Lockley, Ph.D., Professor of Paleontology University of Colorado and author of How Humanity Came into Being
“Following in the footsteps of the renowned philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who questioned the folly of scientists whose purpose was to declare life and evolution purposeless, Steve McIntosh has no such misgivings. He is a man with a purpose, and that purpose is to deliver a positive, progressive message.Evolution’s Purpose is a timely and enlightened exposition about those supposedly subjective, yet all important intangible values of beauty, truth and goodness and how their appreciation and attainment are an integral part of the evolutionary story. Science and philosophy, and McIntosh is well grounded in both domains, are much enriched by integrating these value dimensions into its otherwise overly materialistic cannon.”
Terry Patten, co-author of Integral Life Practice and founder of Beyond Awakening Seminars
“Evolution’s Purpose is a breakthrough book. It redefines the terms of the rational public debate over evolution. In it, Steve McIntosh articulates, in his lucid original voice, important new ideas and persuasive arguments that clarify a hard-headed rationale for the spiritual implications of our scientific under- standing of the story of evolution.”
Jeff Salzman, founder, Boulder Integral Center and CareerTrack Seminars
“Evolution’s Purpose hits me in a sweet spot, where my scientific mind is transcended—and included—into larger, richer and more sacred dimensions. I feel changed and liberated after reading this book the way I did after finishing The Road Less Traveled and Up from Eden: more awake, heartened, grateful for this gift of existence, and motivated to align my life with the power of loving intelligence that is living in me.”
Integral Consciousness
Review of Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolutionby Peter Laurence in the February 2009 issue of The Journal of College & Character, Volume X, No. 3, Walden University
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Feature Article by Steve: Integral Politics and the Evolution of Consciousness and Culture, in the July/August 2008 issue of Tikkun Magazine
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Interview of Steve entitled: Integral Politics Comes of Age, in the December 2007 issue of What Is Enlightenment? Magazine
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““Until now, the integral movement has all too often consisted of a series of footnotes to a single “master,” Ken Wilber. In this widely hailed book—called “ingenious…an alchemical vessel” by Jean Houston and “a signal contribution” by Ervin Laszlo—lay philosopher Steve McIntosh serves up “integralism for the rest of us.” Integral Consciousness is really two books in one: the first half serves as an accessible introduction to “the power of integral consciousness,” defining integralism in a way that Don Beck (of Spiral Dynamics fame) calls “refreshing, indeed.” The second half makes strikingly original contributions to integral theory, breaking new ground in its application to global governance and spirituality in a series of chapters that I found especially riveting. McIntosh not only challenges the idiosyncratic picture of integralism provided by Wilber, but goes on to prove that integral consciousness provides realistic and even inspirational solutions to today’s greatest challenges.””
Review of Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution, reviewed by Chris Dierkes, on Frank Visser’s IntegralWorld.net website
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Praise for Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolutionby the following luminaries (click on a name to read their blurb):
Dr. Don Edward Beck
“McIntosh has produced quite an impressive synthesis of the leading minds that have contributed to the contours and DNA codes of the emerging “Integral Age.” He portrays the work of Clare W. Graves more clearly and accurately than any other person who writes with an Integral pen. McIntosh grasps the essence of Graves’s point of view and the dynamics that craft and turn the spiral, serving as a cartographer of the emergence of the integral stage of consciousness. And, his perspective on what many call “world centric” is both informed and realistic. Far too many of those who write about the spiral are naive and simplistic, believing one can simply paper over the deep cultural divides or developmental strata. This book is refreshing, indeed.”
Byron Belitsos
“For some time, the integral movement has lacked cultural depth and reach because it has all too often consisted of series of footnotes to a single “master,” Ken Wilber. Finally, here is a reliable and coherent voice that can provide a complementary alternative to Wilber’s sometimes idiosyncratic depiction of the integral worldview. McIntosh serves up integralism “for the rest of us”—or at least a reliable perspective that turns a monopoly into polyphony. In addition to reframing and introducing the entirety of the integral philosophy, the author’s insight-filled chapters on integral politics and integral spirituality are riveting, and especially for me his prophetic views on global governance. Not only that, but the book closes with a series of entirely original contributions that should become an enduring part of the integral canon. This long-awaited book will soon become a definitive text of integral thought.”
Andrew Cohen
“… Carter Phipps’ comprehensive interview with integral thinker par excellence Steve McIntosh on “integral politics” is breathtaking in its scope, precision, and depth of vision. In their discussion about the multidimensional complexities of our many global conflicts, a brilliant vision of order and hope shines through. McIntosh has a unique gift for conveying the fundamental tenets of integral thinking in a way that is clear and profoundly rational, and that (after you understand it) always appears to be obvious!”
Allan Combs, Ph.D
“You should have written a less interesting book. As it is, instead of giving it the ‘quick read,’ I am hanging onto every paragraph. Which for me means slow reading and long savoring. … Overall, you’ve done something very important here and that is to create a truly integral philosophy that is not strictly AQAL. It is invaluable to have viable alternative variations. I am including your excellent book in my list of basic readings along with Wilber, Gebser, etc.”
Tom Curren
“Steve McIntosh’s Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution is a significant breakthrough in the field of integral philosophy; it provides a much-needed context and critique of existing works while also bringing forward a host of original insights that expand our understanding of cultural evolution.”
Jordan Gruber
“Instructive, impassioned, and articulate, Steve McIntosh has gifted us with a provocative synthesis of integral thought and thinkers. Both historical retrospective and moral-evolutionary prognosis, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution challenges us to test what we already know against what we hope may one day be possible. While fans of Ken Wilber may especially delight in the fair-handed but discerning treatment of their intellectual hero, I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wishes to continue including-yet-transcending the bounds of their own spiritual and philosophical inquiry.”
Dr. John Haught
“This is a very thoughtful, informed and readable book. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in the future of civilization, the planet and the universe itself. It demonstrates wide familiarity with the natural sciences, developmental psychology, political thought, philosophy and spiritual traditions. It is the sort of synthesis that we can all profit from as we face the next century.”
Jean Houston, Ph.D.
“This book is integral in the best sense: an ingenious gathering of patterns from many fields, giving us a brilliant and useful perspective on the nature of Reality. It is a kind of philosopher’s stone in helping us understand emergent evolution, an alchemical vessel that takes our leaden thoughts and turns them into gold. It invites the reader to reconsider his self and his society in the light of universal analogues. Herein we have a work that can open minds as well as hearts to new ways of being and appreciation for who we are and what we yet may be. What is offered here is unique, a new ecology of self, world and soul such as only the ancients ever dared to portray.”
Barbara Marx Hubbard
“Reading this book is like joining hands with a brother of deep understanding and commitment to our conscious evolution. Steve McIntosh is a powerful guide to applying our integral consciousness to the actual process of self and social evolution. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.”
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
“Many writers have used the term “integral” in an attempt to tie together a potpourri of disciplines, traditions, or perspectives, but Steve McIntosh’s book Integral Consciousness comes closest to the word’s Latin origin, integratus — something that has been blended into a coordinated whole. The nexus of McIntosh’s blend is self-organization, a process that applies to both external and internal evolution, a process in which consciousness and culture are entangled, as are nature and self. Emerging from this blend is a philosophy for the 21st century, one that can harmonize instead of divide, one that can inspire rather than disenchant.”
Dr. Ervin Laszlo
“McIntosh makes a signal contribution to the debate on the direction and nature of evolution, one of the most fundamental issues of our time. He frames his ideas in the context of an integral worldview, likewise a critical aspect of the new understanding. His theory merits sustained consideration and development.”
Carter Phipps
“Integral consciousness is truly the philosophical and spiritual hope for the new century. It is a powerful new worldview essential for all who profess a serious interest in understanding the world and changing it for the better. McIntosh’s book is an educational journey through the fundamentals of integral philosophy and a fascinating exploration of some its most important themes. Carefully researched and tightly argued, this work is an important contribution to a field destined to impact world culture and the direction of human evolution.”
Frank Visser
“Steve McIntosh builds a solid case for integral philosophy by bringing together its past, present and future possibilities. His survey of integral pioneers ranging from Hegel to Wilber is needed and interesting for it shows how various philosophers have wrestled with alternatives to materialism, without the help of the more comprehensive framework we currently have. He masterfully sketches the outlines of both Ken Wilber’s integral system and Spiral Dynamics, leaving out enough of the jargon and specialized details to hold the attention of the average reader. As to integral philosophy’s vision of the future, McIntosh explores the degree to which evolution can be said to be a process of both complexity and consciousness, countering objections from reductionist science.”