[MD] Pirsig's theory of truth

[skutvik at online.no]

John 

9 May you  wrote: 

After I had said  

> > Well,  Mary did write about SOM, but if Truth is the highest
> > intellectual explanation OF ANY GIVEN TIME is dubious. When Stone
> > Age humankind "explained" the heavenly lights as god and goddesses
> > and it was hardly an "intellectual explanation" because that level
> > had not been reached yet.
 
> Mere intelligence of your "Stoned Age" wouldn't need to bother with
> any mythical explanation of thunder.  All they'd need is the smarts to
> come in out of the rain.

By "heavenly lights" I meant what we know as the sun, planets .. etc. 
but that's not the point, it goes for thunder and lightning as well. You 
witty comment is beyond me. 

> The desire to objectify reality in comprehensible terms is the human
> intellectual impulse, whether you're talking Norse mythologies or Big
> Bang, it's all intellect coping with reality, Bo.

The desire to order existence is Pirsig's "... no one can avoid 
metaphysics" and IMO the urge to interpret reality coincided with the 
social level which was the result of biological intelligence reaching the 
Homo Sapiens plane where "to be/not be" was realized. During the 
social era countless interpretations were conceived, from the so-called 
animism over the various mythologies to the most refined one, Semitic 
monotheism, but all were variations over - what to call it - Moral 
maybe.  

This interpretation urge or desire rose to a new level with SOM - to the 
intellectual level in my well known opinion - where all moral 
explanations were deemed superstition and subjective make-believe 
and the detached - objective - scientific approach was introduced.  In 
other words "to order existence" is not "to objectify it". The ordering 
began with the social level, but reached a new and improved stage 
with the intellectual level. Both requires intelligence and that of the IQ 
variations among the Stone Agers was no less than among ourselves.  


Bodvar