[MD] Social Imposition ?

[Case]

[Platt]
You're guessing. In my experience, when something human is invented, someone
has to be first. Pirsig agrees.

[Case]
The real question is one Ham raised: So What? Forget about the origin of
writing for a second. Stick with Guttenberg; clearly an invention, clearly
attributable to one man. So what? What credit beyond acknowledgement is
entitled here? Do we all owe his heirs a royalty check? If Uga the cave man
had invented movable type, his accomplishment would have been far greater
than Guttenberg's. He would single handedly have invented written language
and the printing press all at once out of his own imagination. A stunning
intellectual achievement, of no significance whatever. With no one around
able to read what he wrote and posted, he would not get much of anything but
laughter from his cohorts. We certainly do acknowledge and reward inventors
and originators when their accomplishments are absorbed into the collective.
But we ignore as meaningless inventions and ideas that no one cares about.
So being the first is a dubious distinction. While I appreciate your
stressing of the importance of individual contributions the issue here is:
contribution too what?

> [Case]
> I have definitely reacted against Pirsig's dumbed down version expressed
> in chapter 11. What about equilibrium and systems talk bothers you?

[Platt]
It doesn't explain why. And it ignores individuals who comprise a "system."

[Case]
If you continue to rely on Pirsig as an authority on evolutionary theory
your level of understanding is going to remain severely restricted. One of
the valuable contributions Pirsig is attempting to make is to expand
concepts of evolutionary theory into the realm of social and intellectual
development. His dumbing down does a disservice to this. Your taking this
dumbed down version as gospel is not serving you well. I was rather warming
to Dennett's characterization of Darwin's ideas as dangerous largely because
any fool can understand them and their implications. Your comments on
evolution lead me to suspect that Dennett is wrong.