>Glove,
>Maybe a better way to ask the question is like this: Before the advent of
>the Sociological, we (humans) evolved like all other animals according to
>the laws of natural selection. But like Pirsig says, "When we gained the
>ability to control nature, we lost our chance to be a part of it." (Or
>something close to that.) Sociological comforts and tools have separated us
>from the influence of natural selection (unless you believe in social
>Darwinism, which I don't). Organisms formally evolved in response to
>geographical isolation (for concentrated gene pools) and other
>environmental factors (availability of food, predators. Now that were
>essentially cut off from that... shouldn't cease to evolve Biologically and
>permanently drift laterally? In order for us to evolve biologically,
>societies protections would need to be removed so that we were at the mercy
>of Natural Biological Selection. I will admit that this theory becomes
>alot trickier when trying to apply it to the Sociological/Intellectual
>split. But then, everything seems to become more complicated at the
>Intellectual. Oh well, any thoughts???
Glove:
Hi Rick
We are saying the same thing, I think, in different words. The removal of
the social level "protections" as you put it would tend to be a by-product,
so to speak, of a catastrophic occurence such as a major impact event like
the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Yes, social comforts
have cut us off from biological evolution in the way we socially think of
evolution. Nontheless, biological evolution is still occurring; it is simply
not making "jumps" at this time, it's merely shifting at a 90 degreeness,
which could be viewed as Darwinian natural selection.
I agree that there is incredible complexity involved in the social/intellect
levels , yet the Metaphysics of Quality can illustrate this in a more
expansive way by the development of the idea first put forward by Pirsig
concerning "forces of value". It seems to explain why new species are not
appearing at this time, and yet it is undeniable that at some point in the
past new species did indeed appear.
Best wishes
glove
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