[MD] French ingredient in the soup of sentiments

[Heather Perella]

Hello Platt,

     Interesting how we are agreeing.

> [Platt previously}
> > Platt goes on the say:  "I've always claimed that 
> the intellect is individual, not social, and  have
even advocated
> changing Pirsig's intellectual level to the 
"individual level." Do
> either of you feel this might be a positive step  in
clarifying the
> distinction between the social and intellectual
levels?"
>  
> [SA]
> >      Yes,  it is a positive step. 
> 
> You are the first to agree with my proposal. Welcome
> aboard!
> 
> > Yet, I would add what the individual
intellectualizes is not
> > necessarily only in the mind of the individual.
> 
> If I read you right, you agree with Scott and me
> that mind is not confined 
> to man's brain. Rather, the brain accesses mind that
> is infused in all 
> things and exists everywhere at once. 

     Yes. I haven't really thought about the 'big
mind' accessed by this tiny skull brain of mine, but
this provides fruitful explanation to glimmers and
thoughts that I have had.  We'll say I'm open to this,
but not fully decided that 'this is it', and no other
way can be it.  
 
  SA previously:  The intellect is to become a mirror
of life that is
> much larger than just any particular culture.
> 
> Yes, but I would put it, "A mirror of the heavens
> that is larger than any particular culture."

     Why heavens, not life.  Heavens to me are not of
the earth, whereas life includes everything I could
ever think and be aware of.
 
  SA previously:  I say become, due to the influx of
DQ that would take
intellect into a much fuller realization of the
overall quality that is.  This DQ influx I have argued
stabilizes intellect in a quality world that is not
only human fashioned, but is non-human thought, too. 
Thereby we realize in a quality world, a world that is
not just a human view, but a world that includes
participation of stars, squirrels, and all else here.


   Platt says:  Yes, and especially a world that
includes the
> participation of beauty,  
> betterness and perfection. Pirsig hints at this
> higher world that you and 
> I agree exists (along with Plato and a few other
> philosphers not to 
> mention religious scholars) by stating:
> 
> "Third, there were moral codes that established the
> supremacy of the 
> intellectual order over the social order--democracy,
> trial by jury, 
> freedom of speech, freedom of the press. Finally
> there's a fourth Dynamic 
> morality which isn't a code. 

     This is exactly why I will go back to what I said
earlier before this comment of yours, where I said the
DQ influx stabilizes intellect in a quality world.  By
this I meant DQ and SQ balance each other, and if any
unbalance occurs then this is either too much DQ or
too much SQ.  I would like to clarify that to
stabilize is meant to be associated with balance, but
a better way of associating stabilization is with SQ. 
If I am confusing anybody bear with me please, I
apologize.  Here's why I say this.
     Static quality is more solid in its' character. 
SQ is definition.  The definition of intellect has a
static quality.  Thus, SQ stabilizes intellect without
the uncertainty of DQ.  This uncertainty of DQ is not
necessarily terrible and is very helpful, unless not
enough SQ is present then this level would have no
definition and we would be (1) find the social level
at the top of the spiral, or (2) what you quoted above
"...there's a fourth Dynamic morality which isn't a
code."
     The code is SQ.  The code is definition.  DQ is
undefined and uncertain.  Alittle bit of SQ and
alittle bit of DQ is present with all levels and
therefore in all that is.  This is why I have stated
that we could never fully define anything particular. 
For an example that you might remember, this is why I
left Ham's thesis due to the DQ that I find in any
thesis.  We can only define so much and then we will
discover the undefined aspect. 
 
     Platt said:  "He supposed you could
> call it a "code of Art" 
> or something like that, but art is usually thought
> of as such a frill that 
> that title undercuts its importance. The morality of
> the brujo in Zuni-
> that was Dynamic morality." (Lila, 13) 

     This code of Art is where DQ and SQ meet.  This
would go along with what you said earlier and I am
inclined to agree, "Rather, the brain accesses mind
that is infused in all things and exists everywhere at
once."  This 'access' and 'infused' is similar to how
I see the code coming from DQ and SQ being together. 

> At one time on this site there was a rip roaring
> discussion about the 
> existence (or not) of a level above the intellectual
> level. I said yes, 
> many said no. Not surprisingly, the issue was never
> settled to everyone's 
> satisfaction. :-)

     Yes, Pirsig says flat-out there is another level.
 I quote from Chapter 12, "If you construct an
encyclopedia of four topics - Inorganic, Biological,
Social and Intellectual - nothing is left out.  No
"thing," (this is what David Hardening was saying to
me in [MD] MoQ as religion [Belief Definition] from
April '06) that is.  Only Dynamic Quality, which
cannot be described in any encyclopedia, is absent." 
     Near the end of Chapter 20:  "But it was an
assertion of the Metaphysics of Quality that there
exists a reality beyond all these social mirrors. 
That he had explored.  In fact there are two levels of
reality beyond these mirrors:  an intellectual reality
and beyond that, a Dynamic reality."

     Here are some other quotes that have to do with
this posting from Lila.

     Chapter Nine:  "Each culture has its own pattern
of static good derived from fixed laws and the
traditions and values that underlie them.  This
pattern of static good is the essential structure of
the culture itself and defines it... But in addition
there's a Dynamic good that is outside of any culture,
that cannot be contained by any system of precepts,
but has to be continually rediscovered as a culture
evolves.

      Later in Chapter Nine:  "The term manito
primarily referred to the Supreme Being but also had
many other usages.  It was applied to manifestations
of skill, fortune, blessing, luck, to any wonderous
occurrence.  It connoted any phenomenon that
transcended the run of everyday experience.  In other
words, 'Dynamic Quality'...  
     But static patterns, nevertheless, provide a
necessary stabilizing force to protect Dynamic
progress from degeneration.  Although Dynamic Quality,
the Quality of freedom, creates this world in which we
live, these patterns of static quality, the quality of
order, preserve our world.  Neither static nor Dynamic
Quality can survive without the other."

     This is the order/freedom balance found in
quality, which is SQ/DQ being overall just quality
itself.

Spiritual Adirondack (SA)

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