Steve: You are correct that the intellectual level is not to be understood in terms of higher or lower IQ, but since Pirsig explained the intellect in LC as "simply thinking" it is clear that it actually does have to do with thinking. Intellectual patterns are patterns of thought or habits of mind with the caution that if you are thinking of thinking as applying to worms then that is not what Pirsig means by "simply thinking." Thinking for Pirsig is the manipulation of symbols that stand for patterns on experience. Patterns of such manipulation is what Pirsig means by intellectual patterns.
[Krimel] I think this account still allows the intellectual "level" to exist in just one head. The intellectual "level" arises from the social level and as such requires a social dimension. If not then the intellectual level could as easily arise from the biological level. This point I have been attempting to make is that the intellectual level is comprised of shared ideas. One head can participate in the intellectual level just as individual organisms can participate in the biological and social levels. But no individual can constitute a level. For example, Archimedes apparently developed a form of calculus almost 2000 years before Newton. It was an intellectual pattern of profound importance that did not become part of the intellectual "level" because no one else either read it or understood it. It was not shared. 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/
