What is perspective integration?
What are we actually doing when we integrate different perspectives?
One nice metaphor is parallax vision. The view from our right eye is slightly different than the view from our left eye. Each eye gives us a view that’s true but partial, and it’s only by looking through both eyes together (along with other visual cues) that the world goes from flat to 3D.
Another metaphor is the truth cylinder. Again, we’re playing with increasing dimensionality. The square and the circle are ‘true’ 2-dimensional shadows, but the cylinder is the 3D ‘truth.’
One last metaphor — which has become somewhat of a cultural cliche, but a helpful one — is the blind men and the elephant. The blind man on tusk thinks it’s a spear, and the blind man on the tail thinks it’s a rope. But if they take off their blindfolds, they’ll see the elephant in the room. We want to be able to distinguish between tusk and tail while acknowledging the elephant. We can apprehend the parts while maintaining our capacity to comprehend the whole.
Put simply: integrating perspectives can give us a more holistic view of reality.
And: like anything, perspective integration can be weaponized.
Some perspectives are inherently un-integrate-able. ‘Abortion never’ and ‘abortion always’ don't play well with other perspectives.
Other perspectives are morally unwelcome. A meaningful synthesis on race isn't between anti-racism and racism, but between the anti-racism proposed by Ibram X. Kendi and the color-blindness proposed by Coleman Hughes. We must be discerning about which perspectives we integrate, and how we frame the sides of the debate.
Finally, all perspectives are not equal. Both-sides-ism assumes perspectives are equal, whereas synthesis acknowledges that some perspectives are more relevant or important than others.
Ultimately, the idea is not to turn black and white into gray, which would collapse two shades into one. Instead, we want black, white, and gray. We want each individual eye and parallax vision; the 2D shadows and the 3D form; the parts of the elephant and the full elephant. And more.
Our view will always be partial, and we can always strive to see more faces of reality.