From: Scott Roberts (jse885@localnet.com)
Date: Mon Jun 27 2005 - 02:49:13 BST
Allen,
Just some clarifications:
Allen said: Owen Barfield regards everything to be conscious.
I think that is a correct statement of his philosophical position.
Scott:
That is a gross simplification of his philosophical position, but it is correct as far as it goes. If you need a one-word description, I would say he is a Logos philosopher, like Heraclitus, and St. John the Evangelist ("By [the Logos] was everything made that was made"). But of course, the Logos is conscious.
Allen said:You remind us, quite correctly, that Barfield indicates changes that have occured in Human consciousness since Homer. You remind us that we experience things in a different way to Homerians.
So we have two itmes here - consciousness and change (evolution) in consciousness.
I get the impression that you regard consciousness as the many and intellect as the One
Scott:
No. I consider consciousness, intellect, and quality as different names we give to the interplay of the many and the one. That interplay I call contradictory identity. Barfield calls it (after Coleridge) polarity.
Allen said:
You equate intellect with the One or Quality.
Scott:
I call Intellect and Quality two names (there are others) for the same (non-) thing. It is not One, it is not Many, it is not both One and Many, it is not neither One nor Many. Intellect and Quality are not, in my thinking, equated. Just two ways we experience contradictory identity, one used in the context of thinking, reasoning, etc., the other in the context of valuing and feeling. But there is no value without intellect, and no intellect without value.
Allen said:
So intellect is the driving force behind the evolution of many conscious states since Homer.
Scott:
It is the driving force for all evolution.
Allen said:
What you have here is a Metaphysics of Intellect unless i have severely misunderstood your position, in which case i apologise Scott.
Scott:
Better to call it a Metaphysics of Intellect/Quality/Consciousness. I don't elevate one of these over the others.
Allen said:
We may be talking two different languages then, because i view intellect as emergent from previous states of static quality.
Scott:
And how is that supposed to have happened?
- Scott
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