Hi Glove, Squad,
Glove, you are right on the money on this one.
In this culture of individualism it was easy for Pirsig and us all to
overlook
the fact that intellect and reason are NOT a private construction derived
from objective reality- that is pure SOM thinking
Take a look at a bunch of schoolchildren, take a look at a bevy of babies!
Intellect is fundementally a social construction.
Hi Fintan
let me explain myself a bit futher here for i think you have taken my
meaning the wrong way and you have certainly misrepresented my words in ways
i did not intend. i view the Metaphysics of Quality as a analog of reality
and not true reality, sort of like a map is an analog of an area of the
earths surface and not truly the earths surface. in order to read the map we
must be familar with how the map is to be used, otherwise confusion can
easily result.
the four static levels of reality are all we can know of reality, but our
Metaphysics of Quality analog tells us there is more at work than just what
we can agree on. this is Dynamic Quality. and our map tells us that Dynamic
Quality is ALWAYS of higher moral value than static quality. the whole
purpose of the four levels could be said to be Quality's attempt to free
itself from static latchings.
it is therefore not proper, in my opinion, to state that the social level is
of higher moral value than the intellect. it confuses the meaning of our
analog of the Metaphysics of Quality and does not allow the resonance to
Freedom that Quality demands.
Fintan wrote:
Reason does not exist in isolation. That idea would be meaningless.
All existence would be meaningless.
In earlier posts I asserted that Pirsig got the structure of the four levels
wrong:
Rather than:
INTELLECT It should have been:SOCIETY
SOCIETY INTELLECT
BIOLOGY BIOLOGY
INORGANIC INORGANIC
Fintan, the social level does not lead to Dynamic freedom in any fashion
that i can see. for this, the intellect is needed. the whole basis of the
Metaphysics of Quality is freedom. the social level is a static latching
device to help ensure the biological survival of the species. but if any
level maintains stasis, it will stagnate and die. the role of the intellect
is to break that stasis. clearly that is the reason the old USSR locked up
many of its intellectuals in prison, to keep them from breaking the stasis
of society. therefore i disagree with you.
Fintan wrote:
Easy to miss because of the cultural blindspot of individualism.
Whats more, that error is the VERY SOURCE OF SOM thinking
or the Fall- to give it another name to what those Greeks did.
AND SO:
SOM: is the usurpation of society by intellect.
MOQ: is reason in RighT relation to society.
(capitalisation of RighT to show the RT phrenome)
Fintan, i am not sure i follow you here. subject/object metaphysics is not
just the disruption of society by intellect. subject/object thinking, as i
prefer to call it, must arise BEFORE the social level as i think you
yourself referred to in previous posts.
i am unsure of your use of the word "phrenome". originally "phrenes"
referred to lungs, and therefore the resulting word Pirsig used, morpheme,
to describe Rt.
best wishes,
glove
http://members.tripod.com/~Glove_r/Bohr.html
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