[MD] A fly in the MOQ ointment

[david buchanan]

Mary asked:
What is the Intellectual Level, and specifically, what makes it different from the Social Level?


Dave replied:
The first question we have all tried to answer since the discussion group started years and years ago.




dmb says:

The distinction Pirsig makes is a modification of the old distinction between mythos and logos. Roughly, that's the difference between myth and logic. For those who really want to understand what the social level is all about Pirsig recommends a giant four volume set on world mythology, namely Joseph Campbell's "The Masks of God". It's awesome. I think a lot can be learned about the difference between the social and intellectual levels by looking at the historical examples of the 20th century conflict between them, which continues to this day. I think this conflict can be seen in the news just about every day (Better take your passport if you plan on driving through Arizona) and even in this forum. I think that the long standing confusion over the distinction has a lot to do with the participants who are dominated by social level values and very much refuse to see them as such. In an effort to defend or promote theism, conservatism and various other styles of anti-intellectualism, the issue has been perpetually muddled and muddied. This obfuscation almost seems deliberate and malicious sometimes. But the difference between myths and logic, between ritual and history are easy to see even if it's hard to say what, "specifically", those difference are. I think it must be a lot like the difference between power and truth, safety and wonder. There is also something more organic about the social level, something less deliberately created than our modes of rationality. Myths and dreams speak the same language, so much so that Campbell says dreams are private myths and myths are public dreams. They predate rationality by a long shot. Myths are so old that it's just as accurate to say that myths created us as it is to say people created myths. To quote my coffee mug, "stories create people create stories create people create stories". The phrase looks better on a mug because of the way it wraps around to meet itself, but you get the idea. They're still with us in our dreams, books, movies, politics and advertisements. In all those dos and don'ts and tales of fame and fortune and guys in white hats. I mean, we ARE the social and intellectual values you're asking about and you should be able to FEEL the difference in yourself as well as recognize its movements in history and in our politics. 

And hey, check this out. Wiki's most basic description of "Logos" mentions a couple of Pirsig friends, Heraclitus and the Sophists, and one of his worst enemies. 

Logos (pronounced /ˈloʊɡɒs/ or /ˈlɒgɒs/; Greek λόγος logos) is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "word," "account," or "reason,"[1] it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for the principle of order and knowledge in the Universe.[2]   The sophists used the term to mean discourse, and Aristotle applied the term to rational discourse. 


 		 	   		  
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