From: Elizaphanian (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Tue Jun 17 2003 - 10:31:29 BST
Hi Platt,
> Yes, an impulse for truth. That sounds right. It also sounds right for
> Dynamic Quality because impulse suggests more than simple recognition, it
> suggests a force.
>
> Perhaps I've strayed too from your eudaimonic idea--from emotional wisdom
> to feeling to sense to impulse. In any event, if you'd care to comment I'd
> appreciate it. In the meantime, thanks for D. H. Lawrence quote that
> started me down this path.
No, you haven't strayed too far at all, and I'm excited that the Lawrence quote helped to 'unlock'
what I'm on about (I find it a struggle to articulate sometimes). Two things, one positive, one
negative.
The positive one is that I like the idea of an 'impulse', it ties in the idea that we are responding
to Quality, ie that it is Quality which is generating the process, and that all we do is react to it
in certain ways. (Eudaimonia is 'activity according to excellence', ie activity governed by Quality)
The negative one is that I wouldn't want to restrict the fourth level to 'truth' - I see the concern
for truth as one amongst a number of fourth level virtues, and dependent upon them (eg honesty,
self-awareness). For example, in order to see the truth about slavery in 1860, what was required
wasn't an understanding of logic or evidence (what we normally think of as 'truth') but an openness
to Quality (ie 'the good'). I think that is a function of various virtues, ie the ability to
separate a judgement from social norms, the courage to act on it, the honesty to perceive things
that you might not want to perceive, and so on and so forth. So for me the instinct or impulse for
Quality takes various forms at the fourth level, only some of which are naturally classified as
'truth' (the good and the beautiful are just as level 4 for me).
Damasio's continuum talks about 'a state of feeling made conscious'; I think I would be happy for
that as a description of our level 4 sense of Quality. (Especially as it isn't obviously
'intellectual', in the conventional sense).
I'm now away from home for a week, but I'll catch up on other posts when I return.
Sam
"One instinctively knows when something is right" (from a 1980's advertisement for sherry!!)
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