From: Scott R (jse885@spinn.net)
Date: Wed Jun 18 2003 - 04:41:37 BST
All,
Paul has conveniently gathered some apparently contradictory statements of
Pirsig on the intellectual level and hence when it emerged. Here's my take.
First on the oft-quoted quote 24 of LC:
'For purposes of MOQ precision, let's say that the
intellectual level is the same as mind. It is the
collection and manipulation of symbols, created in
the brain, that stand for patterns of experience.'
This would appear to equate the use of language with the intellectual level,
except for the phrase "that stand for patterns of experience". That can be
seen to point to the new thing that happened c. 500 BC, namely, people
started "thinking about" things *in general*, and started the history of
using language to describe and explain in terms of genera and species, thing
and attribute, etc.
But then there is this quote
"Within this evolutionary relationship it is
possible to see that intellect has functions that
predate science and philosophy. The intellect's
evolutionary purpose has never been to discover an
ultimate meaning of the universe. That is a relatively
recent fad. Its historical purpose has been to help a
society find food, detect danger, and defeat enemies.
It can do this well or poorly, depending on the
concepts it invents for the purpose." Lila Ch 24
However, the Greeks assigned these discoveries to the gods (fire from
Prometheus, Athena telling Odysseus how to trick the Trojans, etc.). That
is, until c. 500 BC, intellect was not owned by the individual.
So, whether or not Pirsig has said as much, I think it is legitimate to say
that the intellectual level *in humans* is less than 3000 years old. On the
other hand, I would regard intellect (though perhaps needing a more
grandiose term, like Logos) to have been "in existence" from the beginning,
that all static patterns are in some sense "intellectual". If one doesn't
want to go that far (it is kind of esoteric, to be sure), then one can say
that it has been "around" all through the social level, but doesn't emerge
as its own level until the Greeks.
The implication of this is that it is only with its emergence in humans that
we can see DQ operating in it, that is, to purposefully work and be creative
on that level.
- Scott
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