[MD] What Bo Doesn't Get

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Andre, Krimmel,


On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 6:51 AM, Andre Broersen <andrebroersen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Krimel to Mati:
> I think the intellectual level was around way before cave art, which dates
> to about 40,000 years ago. But cave art and burial of the dead are
> among the first bits of evidence we have of an intellectual "level".
> They suggest not just that thoughts occurred but that they persisted
> in time and were shared within a community.
>
> Aristotle and the Greeks just happen to coincide with a period during
> which writing had allowed for the accumulation of ideas to the point
> of critical mass. It was a marvelous time but it is not the beginning;
> it is merely a particular phase where in recognizably modern forms of
> thinking begin to appear.
>
> Andre:Hi Krimel, Mati:
> Not sure if Pirsig would agree here Krimel...sure...there was
> thinking...whole mythologies were developed to make sense of the world
> and the cosmos but it had not yet 'matured' to a scientific
> understanding of reality (i.e scientifically ordered reality). This,
> as Pirsig argues ocurred with Aristotle. Prior to this, reality was
> understood as dominated by the gods who, at their whim, dominated,
> controlled and determined the course of human action and thought.

Steve:
I think Krimmel has it right. According to Pirsig, intellectual
patterns date back to the beginning of history:

LC annotation 45. After the beginning of history inorganic,
biological, social and intellectual patterns are found existing
together in the same person. I think the conflicts mentioned here are
intellectual conflicts in which one side clings to an intellectual
justification of existing social patterns and the other side
intellectually opposes the existing social patterns. A
social pattern which would be unaware of the next higher level would
be found among prehistoric people and the higher primates when they
exhibit social learning that is not genetically hard-wired but yet is
not symbolic.