Curtis, Roger and MD.
I looked into the MD archives the other day and found Curtis
Burisch's and Roger Palmer's exchange from a few days back where
Curtis challenged some tenets of the MOQ. Roger met the objections
and Curtis accepted his explanation ..and everything is well, but
then he posed a most profound question (11Aug.)
>> Now I wish to ask everyone this question: If 'intellect' is the
>> category with most freedom, what is going to come after it?
No one has reacted to it that I can see, and as this is of special
interesting to me I must subscribe for a while to elaborate on
that. For Curtis who possibly don't know the background I must back
up a little.
On "freedom". According to Pirsig the Inorganic level is the most
rigid one, and if rigidity is lack of freedom it's the least free,
while Intellect is the most free - or "dynamic" in the MOQ
vocabulary.
And yet IMO the DQ isn't very accentuated in normal human
intellectual life, we accept the traditional ideas and perpetuates
them. Still, as Intellect is the highest level it "borders" to DQ (in
my vision of the Quality universe) so if a person is unconventional
by nature or driven to it for social reasons, s-he will tend to stray
into the intellect/dynamic borderland where a social failure can
get some compensation. Go too far even, and get lost in the
wilderness that Phaedrus managed to beat a trail in.
This "call of the wild" is the weak but relentless force that always
tries to establish a static latch beyond the last foothold, and
as Intellect is the last recognized such, there will always be
attempts to transcend it. Phaedrus venture resulted in a small
bridgehead (that we now fight as h.. to defend), but "transcend
intellect"? What does that imply? If it is "mind" (of SOM) its hard
to see anything surpassing it. But Roger said something important:
>> Remember, Intellect is not another name for thinking. It is a
>> socially derived pattern which stresses that knowledge must be
>> elegant, logically consistent and objective ..
Exactly!! Intellect isn't thinking ('mind' of SOM), consciousness or
awareness, but awareness of objectivity .....as contrasted to
subjectivity.
The oldies of the discussion will know that I have taken it all out
and postulated an idea that very simply says that the Intellectual
level IS subject/object metaphysics! (AKA: SOLAQI: subject/object
logic as Q-Intellect). On such an Intellect a new static something
may build.
However, it isn't easy. It sounds like skipping objectivity (truth)
and who wants that? Listen, all levels were once the highest and
dominated existence; everything was seen in its light. It is of
course strange to say so about a time when inorganic matter was all
there were, or when reptilians - no mammals, let alone human beings -
roamed the earth, but more recognizeable with human society that once
took precedence over everything. Then came the time when Intellect
placed itself on existence's "throne" and divided the world into
subjectivity and objectivity - false and truth. Who could escape
that?
Well before I work myself up let me try to get back on track.
I think it was Platt Holden who once suggested that the Quality idea
itself is a new static groping. He hasn't pursued it actively (after
I hijacked his brainchild :-) perhaps it sounded preposterous to him
that an idea becomes reality instead of the other way round,
but that's not unusual, so until further notice I chose to see the Q
idea as the first successful venture beyond Intellect. The crucial
point is how we define Intellect.
Thanks for your attention.
Bo
PS (disclaim)
Pirsig don't treat Intellect as SOM in LILA and nowhere does he talk
about movements beyond, but in a private letter to Anthony McWatt
(once a participant in the discussion) he speaks about S/O as one
intellectual pattern and the MoQ as another. It doesn't quite satisfy
me, but then who am I to complain. In comparison with P. who created
the Quality universe these are minor details that may be worked out.
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