[MD] Regarding The Fundamental Nature of The Intellectual Level

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Marsha]
Sounds to me like science and reason (EVEN of the S/O kind) are social systems.

[Arlo]
I think what Pirsig is saying (correctly) is that the intellectual 
level (ideas) is something that emerges from the social interactions 
of individuals, not from "individuals alone" or "individuals 
observing nature". What he is pointing out is two-fold, first that 
"intellectual descriptions of nature are always culturally derived" 
and second that "intellect" is not a function of the biological brain 
of wo/man but of the social interactions that wo/man comes to 
participate in. That is, it requires social activity for the 
emergence of intellect.

In the latter case, an "idea" is never the function of "one 
individual", but of that "one individual participating in a social 
dialogue". In the former case, he is assailing "objectivity" that 
says that the "individual" can observe nature "unbiased by cultural 
associations", even to the point of suggesting that what the 
individual "sees" is as much a function of cultural derivation as 
whatever post-sight description s/he may apply.

You will never find, then, an intellectual pattern that is not rooted 
in the social milieu from which it emerged, whether its mathematics 
or philosophy. Nor will you ever find an intellectual pattern that is 
not polyphonic (containing many voices).