Join us on Wednesday, Feb 11. I’ll be in conversation with John Mackey on how a developmental framework informs business & spiritual practice. We’ll also explore the role of nature in cultivating depth and perspective. Wed, Feb 11 • 5–6:30 pm MT: www.developmentalphilosophy.org/join-steve-m...

Watch Rand Stagen present From Higher Ground to the Big Tent, followed by discussion and Q & A: youtu.be/8PSpHCqtPKY

We changed our name from Institute for Cultural Evolution to the Institute for Developmental Philosophy.

This Year in Cultural Evolution with Jeff Salzman Join integral thinker Jeff Salzman to consider the evolving landscape of politics and culture through the lens of Developmental Philosophy. Click here to join my monthly Zoom group: developmentalist.org/join-steve-m...

Dear Friends of Developmental Philosophy, Last week we hosted philosopher and meditation teacher Jeff Carreira for an exploration of real paradigm shifts—what makes them radical, how they occur, and why cultivating “a little not-knowing” opens the door to genuine growth. youtu.be/YOzqMX3asn4?...

We’re pleased to share an opportunity from our colleagues at the Center for Process Studies. Back for its second run, Andrew M. Davis, Ph.D., is offering Whitehead’s Universe—a live, five‑week introduction to Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy. Learn more: whiteheadsuniverse.com

New Article: Fostering Evolution in Islamic Societies: A Strategy to Defeat Radical Islamism Read the full article on Substack: stevemcintoshphilosophy.substack.com/p/fostering-...

Please join us for a presentation and discussion by Jeff Carreira: Paradigm Shifting as Spiritual Practice. When: Wednesday, November 12, from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM Mountain Time Join Steve McIntosh’s Monthly Zoom group for details: developmentalist.org/join-steve-m...

Here’s a clip from my lecture, A Critique of Developmental Psychology: I defend stages of cultural development. youtu.be/NTolk6E-FyM

This is the first in a series of constructive critiques of integral philosophy that examines the blind spots of developmental psychology. Watch my full presentation and Q&A here: t.co/Jc11vN0T4g

Check out my academic article, Cultivating Noosphere Evolution in the Spirit of Teilhard and Whitehead. The article, originally published in the anthology: Whitehead and Teilhard: From Organism to Omega, is now available to read on The Developmentalist website. developmentalist.org/article/cult...

When creativity becomes our shared sacred, consumption yields to stewardship.

I recently hosted award-winning entrepreneur and longtime Institute for Cultural Evolution board member John Street for a wide-ranging conversation on servant leadership, music, and the future of Denver. Watch here: youtu.be/13SRn6nLnPE

Join me on August 13 for a conversation with John Street, ICE Board member, serial entrepreneur, and one of my closest friends and long-time supporters. John and I will discuss his business journey, his leadership of the Colorado Symphony, and his innovative management philosophy.

The teleology of the universe is directed toward beauty.

There is no development that lacks a structure.

Carter Phipps recently spoke with my monthly Zoom group. His presentation is now available to view on our Developmental Philosophy YouTube channel. We invite you to join the discussion in the video’s comment section. Watch here: youtu.be/N-2qaEFv0h4

On Noosphere Evolution. I am pleased to share my latest 5-minute illustrated video, which is the first in a series: youtu.be/EV2In_A9bHI

Excited to share that the full video conversation between me and world-renowned philosopher Dr. Iain McGilchrist is now live on YouTube. Huge thanks to Andrew M. Davis and the Center for Process Studies for producing such an outstanding dialogue: youtu.be/0zjdypYYXIs?...

Here is a preview of my forthcoming philosophical dialogue with Iain McGilchrist, where we consider philosophy's potential to “bridge and separate" science and religion. This is an 8-minute—full dialogue will be posted soon by @ctr4process.bsky.social youtu.be/Q1R8jHtslGw?...

Annick de Witt, Ph.D., gave a great presentation to my monthly Zoom group. Here is a replay of her presentation and discussion: youtu.be/3RoCWWaQLho?...

According to David Bentley Hart, the impossibility of AGI does not eliminate the threats.

When cognition is bound by finite programming, no matter how large the dataset of that programming, it will always lack the degrees of freedom necessary for authentic imagination.

Join us for a Zoom talk by Annick de Witt, PhD—author, social scientist & co-creator of the Worldview Questionnaire. For joining instructions signup to my Zoom group: developmentalist.org/join-steve-m...

As long as AI lacks the ability to have direct experience, it cannot become conscious in any meaningful sense.

For more, read my article "The Spiritual Significance of the Rise of AI": developmentalist.org/article/the-...

Although the advent of AI will certainly transform our society, in order to facilitate its gifts while constraining its threats, we have to accurately understand what it is and what it is not.

Humanity’s uniquely creative powers reveal our special role as agents of evolution—we are the bearers of the universe’s teleology. And as we work to bring more goodness, truth, and beauty into the world, we help fulfill the purpose of evolution overall.

By evolving into self-awareness, humans provide a way for the universe to experience itself. Our bodies and minds are both the product of evolution and the means whereby evolution can extend itself further through the seemingly unlimited potentials of human personal and cultural growth.

By revealing how and why humans are special, another spiritually significant dividend provided by the rise of AI will be the philosophical rehabilitation of humanity’s unique moral standing in the universe.

The rise of AI can help us better appreciate how the “superpower” of self-aware agency is an evolutionary achievement unique to humans. It can show how our ability to create authentic expressions of goodness, truth, and beauty is also special.

Contemplating the structural sequence of emergence that has produced not only complex forms of matter but also the irreducible interiority of mind can accordingly help us overcome our society’s contemporary "meaning crisis."

As we begin to discover the limits of AI and come to better understand that human experience and intention are not merely physical, this will conclusively show how reductive physicalism is false, which will be a “spiritual breakthrough” in its own right.

We can expect that AI will demonstrate its own emergent capacities, like those seen in other complex adaptive physical systems, such as weather systems. But physical forms of emergence such as these will not mean that AI has become alive, let alone consciously aware of itself.

Nonhuman animals may have purposes, but we humans have purposes for our purposes.

Join us for a talk by process philosopher Andrew Davis, PhD, on philosophy’s role in existential risk, the meaning crisis, and philosophical practice. Can process thought guide civilization’s future? April 9, 5-6:30 PM MT. More info & Zoom link: developmentalist.org/join-steve-m...

Those who confidently anticipate that machines will soon become self-aware agents would have us believe that by creating sufficiently complex technology, we can clear the high hurdles of discontinuity, not only between matter and life,

The "fallacy of the gradient" assumes that everything must ultimately be reducible to physical matter, suggesting there must be a seamless continuum or gradient between the simplest forms of matter and the most complex forms of human thought.

I’m inclined to side with the “minority report,” which holds that authentic consciousness includes what Jaron Lanier calls a “mystical interiority”—a form of self-awareness that is beyond the capacity of any possible machine.

The hard truth about pre-traditional consciousness is that we have to have a right to be prejudiced against it.

Here are my impressions of Ken Wilber's Finding Radical Wholeness. This clip is part of a presentation I gave to my Zoom group called "What Is Philosophy Good For?"

Applying thesis, antithesis, and synthesis to worldviews using developmental philosophy.

"Nature is visible spirit, and spirit is invisible nature." —Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

The Taijitu of Lai Zhide, “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate,” shows how two opposing poles can enact a third central element through their integration. This symbol thus depicts a unified trinity of three interactive elements.

Phi (1.618…) is mathematically the *most* irrational of all irrational numbers. Yet the unity pattern it creates—the *golden ratio* in which the small part is to the large part as the large part is to the whole—expresses a maximally self-similar, fractal relationship.

Here is a clip from a recent talk on why we must transcend and include postmodernism. youtu.be/lis9VCkr0tg?...

As we experience spirit, spirit experiences us.

The newly emerging perspective of cultural intelligence is “post-progressive” because, while it affirms progressive values, it also recognizes the legitimacy and ongoing necessity of modernist values and traditional values as well.

You Are Not Alone

What is Your Worldview? I created this 7-minute test that helps you find out which “values frame” describes you best, as well as the worldview to which you are most opposed. https://buff.ly/4awFJe8