> Krimel] > As I understand it, the intellectual level is the aggregation of mental > tools that have evolved over the course of human history. It is the > collection of knowledge, lore and skills that every human being has access > to. It is the most dynamic of Pirsig's levels because it changes most > rapidly. What makes the present era SO dynamic is that we have created > intellectual level tools that give all of us instant access to just about > every bit of knowledge acquired by mankind over the past 12,000 years. This > is an unprecedented expansion of human consciousness. It is the very dynamic > quality of this expansion of consciousness that threatens the stability of > society and biology and in fact the inorganic level as well. Joe What are mental tools? SOM proposes a mind/body split. Mental tools are not evolutionary, but describe levels of creation in terms of a mind. E.G., a superman. MOQ, based on evolution instead of creation, tries to explain reality in terms of a level Intellect evolved from a Social Level. How are intellectual tools different from Social, Organic, Inorganic tools?
[Krimel] Mental tools are such things as the axioms and techniques of geometry. It was the construction of geometry that was the real and lasting contribution of the Greeks. The Greek philosophers were mainly trying to explore the implications of that monumental achievement in the broader scheme of life and living. So logic and its systematic rules are mental tools. The reading and writing are powerful mental tools. The ability it encode and decode information is a set of mental tools. Hierarchical schemes of organization are mental tools. Among the most recent and powerful mental tools is random access for all the reasons that Pirsig gives in Lila. But I would include in the intellectual level all of the experience, stories and lore that have been encoded into writing and are accessible to anyone who can decode it. [Joe] Mass confusion results from a false metaphysics, and tyrants play on that confusion. Twentieth century wars are explicable in terms of a superman. Hopefully the 21st century has a better grasp that while necessary, a social level of evolution is not above an intellectual level of evolution. A computer is an inorganic tool to retrieve and store coded information. Should I consider it an intellectual tool? [Krimel] Yes just as the written word and the printing press enabled progressively more information to be stored and accessed that was previously possible, digital formatting provides an unprecedented expansion of consciousness. [Joe] Consciousness evolved at the Social level. The intellectual level evolved from the social level consciousness. A mind is infinite in SOM. Intellect is simply the next level evolving from the social level in MOQ. Destroy the lower levels and evolution is destroyed. Cutting off my deformed nose doesn¹t add to my beauty. I would look weird! [Krimel] I would say the humans have added almost nothing in terms of social evolution. Our social behavior differs very little from the behavior of other primate species. We organize ourselves into small groups and live within socially prescribed dominance hierarchies. We have similar patterns of rearing our young and interacting, similar emotional responses. There has been a great deal of interest in how and why humans have developed the unique intellectual skills that our species does seem, uniquely to possess. There is no universal agreement but Platt for example, is just mistaken to suggest that the matter has not and is not being studied. Among William James great contributions to psychology was his emphasis on Darwinian theory and the importance of the function that behaviors and patterns of thinking serve. His lasting legacy in the field of psychology is found in evolutionary psychology that has had a big resurgence in recent years. Steven Pinker, Michael Shermer and Michael Tomasello are among the many mainstream writers who have brought this to the public in recent years. But I take your point to be that evolution at higher levels depends utterly on stability at lower levels. If the average annual surface temperature of our planet varied even slightly from what it has been over the past several million years, we would see very different life forms here now. It is this particular static range of fluctuation that gives rise to the life we see about us. ================================================ On 4/14/09 10:31 AM, "Krimel" <[email protected]> wrote: > Krimel] > As I understand it, the intellectual level is the aggregation of mental > tools that have evolved over the course of human history. It is the > collection of knowledge, lore and skills that every human being has access > to. It is the most dynamic of Pirsig's levels because it changes most > rapidly. What makes the present era SO dynamic is that we have created > intellectual level tools that give all of us instant access to just about > every bit of knowledge acquired by mankind over the past 12,000 years. This > is an unprecedented expansion of human consciousness. It is the very dynamic > quality of this expansion of consciousness that threatens the stability of > society and biology and in fact the inorganic level as well. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
