From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Sun Sep 11 2005 - 15:14:01 BST
[Platt wrote to Wim in the Katrina thread]
> A collective is a concept and can do nothing. Individuals like you, me,
> members of our families, neighbors, etc. etc. are physical and do
> everything.
[Arlo]
Not according to Pirsig's evolutionary MOQ.
"A metaphysics of substance makes us think that all evolution stops with the
highest evolved substance, the physical body of man. It makes us think that
cities and societies and thought structures are all subordinate creations of
this physical body of man. But it's as foolish to think of a city or a society
as created by human bodies as it is to think of human bodies as a creation of
the cells, or to think of cells as created by protein and DNA molecules, or to
think of DNA as created by carbon and other inorganic atoms. If you follow that
fallacy long enough you come out with the conclusion that individual electrons
contain the intelligence needed to build New York City all by themselves.
Absurd."
"Biological man does not create his society any more than soil "creates" a tree.
The pattern of the tree is dependent upon the minerals in the soil and would
die without them, but the tree's pattern is not created by the soil's chemical
pattern. It is hostile to the soil's chemical pattern. It "exploits" the soil,
"devours" the soil for its own purposes, just as the cat devours the catfood
for its own purposes. In this manner biological man is exploited and devoured
by social patterns that are essentially hostile to his biological values."
To counter your charge that Pirsig is using "man" in the collective and
glorifying the individual "man" who held the hammer:
"There isn't any "man" independent of the patterns. Man is the patterns.
"The metaphysics of substance makes it difficult to see the Giant. It makes it
customary to think of a city like New York as a "work of man," but what man
invented it? What group of men invented it? Who sat around and thought up how
it should all go together?"
This fictitious "man" has many synonyms: "mankind," "people," "the public," and
even such pronouns as "I," "he," and "they." Our language is so organized
around them and they are so convenient to use it is impossible to get rid of
them. There is really no need to. Like "substance" they can be used as long as
it is remembered that they're terms for collections of patterns and not some
independent primary reality of their own."
Finally, that Pirsig's evolutionary (and emergent) hierarchy places emphasis on
the collective-to-individual between stages:
"So here was this Giant, this nameless, faceless system (social level patterns)
reaching for him (Pirsig, the individual), ready to devour him and digest him.
It would use his energy (Pirsig, the individual) to grow stronger and stronger
throughout his life while he grew older and weaker until, when he was no longer
of much use, it (social pattern) would excrete him and find another younger
person full of energy to take his place and do the same thing all over again."
Collectives of biological individuals give rise to social level "individuals",
as a tree from soil. Collectives of social level "individuals" give rise to
Intellectual level "individuals", as a tree from soil.
What are individuals at each level? On the biological level it would be the
collective of cells we call the human body. On the social level it would be The
Giant according to Pirsig (here is one area where I disagree with him, I'd say
rather communicating "individuals" in a social semiotic milieu, and that the
social level edifices such as cities and towns are material artifacts of social
level activity). On the Intellectual level, Pirsig would say a "individual
intellectual pattern" would be "science" or "freedom" or "math".
Arlo
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 : Sun Sep 11 2005 - 15:23:01 BST