Dear Dan, and group.
I'm very very glad to see you back. I also shared the worries with Rog and
others.
The point about the president of the USA makes me think. Hope you can solve
my doubts.
> The social
> level is the sum total of all cultural influences on the individual which
no
> scientific instrument can detect. A great example of a social pattern of
> value that Mr. Pirsig gives in the new annotated version of Lila's Child
is
> the President of the United States. We all know who and what he is but no
> scientific instrument can detect the President of the United States.
Well, it's not far from my image of the social level as "culture", where
culture is the knowledge we share and transmit and store without the need of
DNA.
Anyway, I have a problem with the Pirsig's formulation you offer:
"The social level is the sum total of all cultural influences on the
individual which *no scientific instrument* can detect".
It is the reference to the scientific instruments that bothers me. I agree
about the president. But let me offer another example. English Language. I
think we all agree it is a social pattern. Well, my computer can detect
English Language, suggests corrections to wrong terms, and tell my English
posts from my Italian posts.
Comments?
Ciao,
Marco
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:02:09 BST