Andre,
On Jun 24, 2012, at 9:08 AM, Andre Broersen <[email protected]> wrote:
> Marsha quoted Schopenhauer:
>
> "... It is almost, grumbles Schopenhauer, 'as if our intellect were
> intentionally designed to lead us into error'.
>
> "The mind, created by the will [Dynamic Quality] for the purpose of survival,
> exists to serve it, and is subservient to it throughout the life of the
> organism. This subservience consists not only in that --- in Hume's
> well-known formulation --- the ends we pursue are determined by our needs,
> desires, fears and so on, in other words by our passions, whereas the
> concerns of reason is the relationship of means to the achievement of those
> ends. It goes further than this. The will [Dynamic Quality] keeps most of
> its operations permanently secret from conscious mind, as we saw in the last
> chapter. And it does not allow even the intellect to carry out its task
> objectively within its own sphere. Throughout our lives our rational
> thinking is all-pervadingly distorted and corrupted by our willing. '_Love_
> and _hatred_ entirely falsify our judgements; in our enemies we see nothing
> but shortcomings, in our favorites nothing but merits and good points, and
> even their defects seem
lovable to us. Our _advantages_, of whatever kind it may be, exercises a
similar secret power over our judgements; what is in agreement with it at once
seems to us fair, just and reasonable; what runs counter to it is presented to
us in all seriousness as unjust and outrageous, or inexpedient and absurd.
Hence so many prejudices of social position, rank, profession, nationality,
sect, and religion. A hypothesis, conceived and formed, makes us lynx-eyed for
everything that confirms it, and blind to everything that contradicts it. What
is opposed to our party, our plan, our wish, our hope often cannot possibly be
grasped and comprehended by us, whereas it is clear to the eyes of everyone
else; on the other hand, what is favourable to these leaps to our eyes from
afar. What opposes the heart is not admitted by the head. All through life we
cling to many errors, and take care never to examine their ground, merely from
fear, of which we ourselves are unconscious, of possib
ly making the discovery that we have so long and so often believed and
maintained what is false. Thus is our intellect daily fooled and corrupted by
the deceptions of inclination and liking.'"
>
> (Magee, Bryan, 'The Philosophy of Schopenhauer', hardcover, 1997, p.
> 157)
>
>
> Andre:
> Very early on in my apprenticeship many years ago, I was taught that a good
> artist nor a good tradesman (slipping a bit of ZMM in here: motorcycle
> mechanic) blames his tools for a low quality result.
>
Marsha offers a Robert M. Pirsig quote:
While sustaining biological and social patterns
Kill all intellectual patterns.
Kill them completely
And then follow Dynamic Quality
And morality will be served.
(LILA, chapter 32)
Marsha:
Andre, perhaps your intellect has you fooled, or corrupted, into thinking it is
sharper than it is. I much prefer understanding the intellect's fallibility.
Marsha
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