From: Elizaphanian (Elizaphanian@members.v21.co.uk)
Date: Tue Oct 22 2002 - 18:54:41 BST
Hi Steve,
> Are you saying that the individual
> contains the intellect as well as other aspects including a social and a
> biological aspect of existence plus "judgment" which is the ability to
> discern quality that is not contained in any other level?
The short answer is yes.
I think that sometime around Homer and Isaiah, but best exemplified in the
culture of fifth century Athens (where Socrates appears at the tail end),
human beings gained the capacity to operate as individuals, and not as
social units. So I am thinking of an individual as being composed of organic
elements (water, salts etc), biological elements (the cells, the system of
the body), and social elements (the role they play within the tribe).
Whenever a human being is in a decision making situation pre-5th century,
then their decisions are geared around an application of biological and
social level elements, eg instinct (run away from lions and tigers) and
retribution (maintain status of clan or tribe).
For various reasons, largely contact with other civilisations and greater
affluence, human beings in Classical Greece became able to consider
themselves separately from their social role; moreover, they began to
discriminate and judge between the claims of alternative societies. I think
the pre-eminent forum for this discrimination was the theatre (hence
Sophocles not Socrates), which pre-dates the philosophical innovations. You
then get the Sophists, as described by Pirsig, who teach either moral
relativism (which Socrates was executed for - not paying respects to the
Gods and corrupting the young) or the pursuit of excellence (Quality). Only
then do you get Plato and Aristotle, and the elevation of Reason as the
essence of the soul.
The key (and here I follow MacIntyre) is that whereas before your identity
was exhaustively defined by your social role, and your place in the story of
that society, and your decisions were determined by the values of that
society, now your identity is able to maintain its own narrative structure,
your place is determined by the quality of your own actions, and your
decisions are determined by your own values.
Reason (intellect, as I understand it) comes in as an aid to the
interrogation of social values, and the discernment of your own individual
values. Hence the Delphic maxim 'know thyself'.
I see reason as dependent on judgement, which is another way of talking
about emotional intelligence or wisdom, the capacity to ascribe 'right'
values. I see reason as a tool, to be used in conjunction with other tools
(eg the telling of stories) to educate the individual, and _draw out_
(educare) the individual's capacity for independent judgement. I suspect
this is what Aristotle called the soul - that which _animates_ the
individual and is their final cause (their telos).
So yes, I see the intellect as one aspect of the individual, and the
defining aspect of becoming an individual as the capacity for independent
judgement.
Sam
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