Hi 3wd,
3WD
> I guess my current uneasiness with Pirsig's levels hierarchy revolves
> around this thread line. In my opinion the really radical evolutionary
> jumps are from nothing to something, inorganic to biological, and from
> biological to human consciousness. Under the MoQ there are three choices
> as to where this jump to consciousness occurred. Either it is the event
> defining the split between biological and social levels or between the
> social and intellectual levels or it occurred sometime during social
> evolution. None of these choices seems to fully correspond with the
> characteristics Pirsig gives for the static levels of MoQ.
> Under one of the common interpretations of the MoQ (Bo's , DMB's etc.)
> the above patterns are all "social" patterns, no intellectual values
> have yet emerged. And this article refers to "earlier societies and
> cultures" as lacking these values. So it would seem that under the MoQ
> human consciousness is not the event defining the jump from biological
> to social. So are we are left to conclude that one of the huge jumps in
> evolution, the jump to human consciousness, is so insignificant that is
> lies buried somewhere in the middle of the MoQ's social level? What
> about the jump from social to intellectual?
GARY'S RESPONSE: Your problem with a evolutionary/historical view of
consciousness is that you are using Pirsig's Ethical map that he made in
Lila and the 'common' interpretations of MOQ.
Pirsig's map of the 4 levels is not a historically accurate map. I had said
a while back that the Social and the Intellect level co-evolve
simultaneously. They had to. Individual's think! Society is a collection
of thinking and creating individuals, and the accepted ideas of those
individuals that gets taught to the next generation of individuals in the
process of socialization. Historically the Social and the Intellect level
came into being at the same time. Though first their was the individual
idea and then the teaching of the idea. It is only after the whole thing
gets going, that the intellect level starts as the product of the Social
from the process of childhood socialization.
There was no real problem, only the idea of the MOQ that you were using was
based on cloudy and confused thinking on the subject.
The jump is from our biological ancestors to homo sapiens who had the
capacity to form thoughts and create a way to communicate those thoughts.
Forming thoughts in one's mind is the Intellect level. Communication is the
key to creating the Social level.
Hoping to bring Clarity,
Gary
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