[MD] Platt's Individual Level

[Platt Holden]

> [Case]
> > Spiritual - hmm just saying it can't be put into words isn't very
> > helpful. How does it effect your understanding?
> 
> [Platt]
> Understanding of what? I don't understand your question.
> 
> [Case]
> You say that reason and emotion play a role in you appreciation of
> beauty. This I think I understand; but you add this spiritual part and I
> am curious about it. You say it is inexpressible in words. How is that
> different than emotion? Is it a connection to the supernatural? I
> thought there was a pretty extensive vocabulary for expressing ideas
> about the spirit. Is it a still small voice? The vague apprehension of
> you know not what? Does it aid you in determining Truth? If so, does it
> factor in, as say, a third with reason and emotion each getting a third?
> How would you weight it?
> 
> I ask because I think for example that reason plays almost no role in
> determining Truth. Reason is a process for checking your work. It does
> not lead one to the truth it just verifies that the path taken has
> validity.

First, I agree with your second paragraph about reason. Second, 
spiritual to me means what the mystics say about reality, i.e., it's  
beyond words. Pirsig put it this way: "They (mystics) share a common 
belief that the fundamental nature of reality is outside language; that 
language splits things up into parts while the true nature of reality 
is undivided." Another way to say the same thing is that "the only 
valid thing in art is the one thing that cannot be explained." So I 
can't weight it, describe it or think about it in any way. Like 
experience itself, spirit is just there, a value that is "immediate, 
intuitive, undeliberate and involuntary, leaving no room for conscious 
application of standards, criteria, rules or precepts." 

Hope this helps.

Platt