Although all we know is our own inner experience of life, our concerns extend to others and the world at large. Our experiences and our ways of being are also shaped by our interactions with others and the world at large. If we are to better understand the human condition, then it is imperative we also appreciate the context within which we exist. As no two people have had the exact same life experiences, we can say everyone lives their life in a different context; everyone is a unique human being. We live in various places, we grew up in different societies and different families, went to different schools, had different friends and so on. Even twins, who have grown up in the same family will still have had different experiences and therefore a different life context. It would seem to be impractical to find a way to explore this vast variety of contexts, but this is not the case.
In his book, ‘A Theory of Everything’, Ken Wilber helps us better understand life’s complexity by identifying four aspects that are always relevant to the human experience. He called these four aspects, the ‘Four Quadrants’. These four aspects reflect the interior and exterior aspects of individuals and collectives. In other words, the four aspects reflect the subjective experiences of our individual life and that shared in relationship with others and a more concrete perspective of individuals and communities. Ken Wilber called the four quadrants ‘I’, ‘We’, ‘It’ and ‘Its’.
The ‘I’ Quadrant
The ‘I’ Quadrant refers to our own individual experience of living. It is the domain of subjective life that is unique to each of us. It is our inner experience of perception, awareness and consciousness and it is all that we will ever know. It speaks to our personal experience of our body, our emotional life and our thoughts. The ‘I’ Quadrant entails and is influenced by our interpretations of the other three quadrants.
The ‘We’ Quadrant
The ‘We’ Quadrant relates to the experiences we have with each other. It can speak to one-to-one relationships but also to the web of relationships within a community. As such, it includes shared beliefs, stories and purposes, which are often formalised into the systems that in part comprise the ‘Its’ Quadrant. As we are all unique beings, the extent to which we share experience will always be less than complete, even though we may believe otherwise. We may share an experience such as a having a meal or going to a concert together, but the link we share is being in those situations and not our individual experience of those situations.
The ‘It’ Quadrant
The ‘It’ Quadrant refers to what can be observed about the exterior of an individual. It includes things such as anatomy, behaviour, appearance and so on. It can be observations shared with others or simply an observation one makes of oneself. This quadrant is empirical in nature.
The ‘Its’ Quadrant
The ‘Its’ Quadrant refers to the natural, socially constructed and manufactured environment, in which a community exists. The legal system, the transport system, the buildings and anything else that makes up the concrete external world fall into this domain. As with the ‘It’ Quadrant, the ‘Its’ Quadrant is empirical in nature.
Ken Wilber ultimately distilled his Four Quadrants (I, We, It & Its) into three domains he termed the ‘Big 3’ – I, We & It and I will use this idea for future reference.
The Big 3 domains provide the context for our experience. They form the backdrop to our life allowing us to make sense of what we observe, relate to others and create things in the world. They are always relevant to our daily lives. They also continually impact on each other. Our subjective experience manifests our behaviour which is observed by others. We respond to the behaviour of others and that shifts our inner life. Our beliefs about how things should be done are often formalised in a system or structure, which in turn tends to influence how we experience situations and behave.
It is important to remember the role of these impacts as we delve deeper into the ‘I’ Quadrant and the human condition
