Significant vs. Fundamental

For most of my life I used the terms "significant" and "fundamental" more or less interchangeably. They were both essentially ways to speak of the importance of whatever it happened to be that I was speaking about. It wasn't until I started delving into the writings of Ken Wilber that "got" the primary distinction between these concepts.

In Wilber's conceptualization "fundamental" refers to the most basic constituent element of the topic. For instance, an atom is more fundamental than a cell because cells are comprised of atoms and not the other ways around. On the other hand, the "higher up" the chain of constituency a concept goes, the more its significance increases. A cell signifies (represents, contains) the existence of atoms so it is more significant by nature. Keep moving on up and the distinction holds true: a cell is more fundamental than a human body but a body is more significant than a collection of cells.

In practical terms this distinction can seem pretty irrelevant, but philosophically this inverse relationship between the fundamental and significant nature of objects and concepts can lead to profound conclusions and help to avoid paradigmatic mistakes.

Two immediate examples come to mind. In the American political process the individual voter is the most fundamental element but party affiliations are much more significant. When I conduct good psychotherapy the most fundamental aspect of healing is an empathic, caring and individualized relationship; however, speeding up the healing process by using an advanced technique such as EMDR or brainspotting is a highly significant development in the technology of human growth. It still requires the most fundamental component of all therapeutic approaches but takes the whole genre to a new level.

Again, in many ways this is the most philosophically arcane of the many therapeutic distinctions I've written about, but to me it's elegant and fascinating and sometimes that's all I need to keep going until the next mystery is revealed.