From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Aug 13 2003 - 17:03:04 BST
Hi Paul,
> No, I think the intellectual level is completely discrete in that there
> are no "ideas" or "symbols" at the social level. However, culture in the
> MOQ is social patterns plus intellectual patterns. I think the
> relationship between social and intellectual experience accounts for the
> way some intellectual patterns are "legal" and some ideas are "illegal"
> in a particular culture and why Pirsig can define insanity as an
> intellectual pattern. A thinking person is also a social entity and is
> subject to social forces and evaluations which define the common sense,
> or mythos of a particular culture. This quote below is extremely
> important to understand the relationship between society and intellect:
> "It is important for an understanding of the MOQ to see that although
> 'common sense' dictates that inorganic nature came first, actually
> 'common sense' which is A SET OF IDEAS, has to come first. This 'common
> sense' is arrived at through a web of SOCIALLY APPROVED EVALUATIONS of
> various alternatives. The key term here is 'evaluation', i.e. quality
> decisions. The fundamental reality is not the common sense or the
> objects and laws approved of by common sense but the approval itself and
> the quality that leads to it." Lila's Child Note 97
First, thanks for giving the reference in Lila's Child, the dialogue
between Glover and Pirsig, page 526. I too think the quote is extremely
important, not only for the reasons you cite, but also because it
emphasizes EVALUATION, DECISIONS, and APPROVAL as an integral part
of FUNDAMENTAL REALITY. In other words, to judge, to discriminate and
to prefer are highly moral activities. Compare this to the currently
widely circulated moral beliefs that it's wrong to be judgmental, wrong
to hold someone in higher esteem than another, and wrong to question
the ideal of equality. Those who proclaim such virtues ignore the self-
contradiction in the adage, "Judge not lest ye be judged." But more to
the point, they ignore the basis of reality itself--Quality. As Pirsig
wrote, "You can't even get out of bed in the morning without making a
VALUE JUDGMENT that it is better to do so." (LC, Note 124)
I conclude that the sooner that some socially approved ideas die a
natural death--like multiculturism and moral relativity--the better.
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 : Wed Aug 13 2003 - 17:02:46 BST