From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Jul 25 2005 - 13:02:17 BST
Hi Robert W,
> I'd like to suggest that the 'intellectual level' is that which is
> nessesary for individuals to group and stay together. That was once the
> function of 'The Church', or religion, which is now superceded by
> Science/Intellect, but biological cells that receive and send information
> to and from other cells are communicating and are therefore involved in
> intellectual activity.
Cells "communicating" to one another is a biological activity, not
intellectual. Pirsig reserves intellect (mind) for humans.
> As to a 'collective conscienceness' that is the only conscienceness there
> is, because your mind is not yours, it's ours.
The content of my mind is not the same as yours any more than the content
of my stomach is the same as yours. We all have stomachs, but there's no
such thing as a "collective stomach."
> Mind is one thing. Each
> culture shares the same mind, because it shares the same language and the
> same ideas. If you disagree, tell me with what you think if not with words.
Consciousness is the faculty that perceives reality, forms judgments and
chooses values. My cat is conscious. Mind is the faculty of creating,
collecting and manipulating symbols that stand for patterns of
perceptions. This faculty defines humans. Mathematicians think without
words.
> Your body did not invent those words. You 'uploaded the program' from the
> culture. 'Your' mind and the program are the same thing. We all share the
> same program.
The "program," the faculty of symbolizing, is created by the brain and is
the same for all and is "uploaded" during the human brain's physical
development. The meaning of the particular symbols used is influenced by
the culture.
Particular symbols like "me" and "ghost" are, according to some, mistaken
interpretations of perception.. But, making a mistaken interpretation is
like making a typo a word program. It's not the program's fault.
Platt
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jul 25 2005 - 19:11:24 BST