The LIFE Model: A Meta-Theoretical Conceptual Map for Applied Positive Psychology

The issue of whether Wilber’s (1997) Integral Framework is itself a culturally specific worldview is somewhat complex. Wilber’s epistemological position might arguably be described as critical realist. While critical realism recognises that truth and objectivity are problematic, it disavows radical relativism, and holds that it is “unwise and premature to abandon wholesale, claims to objectivity and the search for ‘truth’” (Layder 1998, p. 3). Wilber (1995) acknowledges that all viewpoints (including theories such as his own) are inextricably perspectival and culturally situated; there is no Archimedean ‘view from nowhere’ (Nagel 1989). However, at the same time, Wilber holds that some viewpoints are more accurate than others, and even if we cannot achieve absolute objectivity, we can make progress towards it; here he cites Thomas Kuhn (1970, p. 206), who, despite formulating the powerful concept of shifting scientific paradigms, remained a ‘convinced believer in scientific progress’. As such, Wilber (1995) contends that his framework does accurately capture the four basic ontological dimensions of the person. At the same time, he allows that this framework could yet be superseded by still more accurate conceptualisations; for example, while in a relative sense the distinction between objective body and subjective mind may be valid, people in future may eventually deem this distinction to be ultimately illusory, as some spiritual teachings suggest [e.g., Sri Aurobindo 1970]. The authors take a similar critical realist position with respect to the domains of the LIFE model, which are regarded as provisionally accurate and valid. The issue is slightly different with regard to the layering of the LIFE model. As set out in the section on layering, the identification here of five specific layers is somewhat arbitrary; one could easily stratify the domains in any number of ways, choosing a greater or lesser number of layers, or deciding to focus on different specific layers, depending on one’s agenda and priorities.