[MD] Ah-ha Qua Ah-ha

[118]

Hi Matt,
Let me say that I enjoy your writing.  I have a comment following a recent
paragraph from you which addresses Intellectualizing, below.

[Matt]

But I also think we might better stop and wonder just what
> this thing called "intellectualizing" is that causes the problems.
> Pirsig, among many here, has often seemed bothered by this kind
> of question, mainly because the thought has been that the notion
> isn't esoteric, and quite commonsensical.  "Why ask?  You already
> know."  But, just what is it that we already know, that we are
> constantly doing?
>
> Pirsig, when finally pushed by Paul Turner, said that it was the
> "manipulation of abstract symbols."  What is abstraction, what does it
> mean "to abstract"?  Pirsig, again, leads the way with (in that letter)
> his earlier description as "independently manipulable signs."  To
> _abstract_ is to make _independent_.  It is, in a word, _to isolate_.
>
>
> [Mark]
Personally I see it much easier to view intellectualizing as creating.  I
believe the Western world has the notion that something is being uncovered
through the process.  This is most common in the intellectualizing involved
in science.  That is, there is something there which we have to figure out.


If the sense of creation is used, this dispels the need for the seeking of
Truth.  By this perspective we can say that what we term pre-conceptual are
the building blocks that we use to create. There are many such blocks, and
we choose a few to use for our building.  So in a sense we are isolating
signs, but also building with them and creating new signs in the process.

This type of interpretation does not dismiss Quality, since Quality
encompasses the tools that we use to put the building blocks together with
our intelligence.  In the sense of endless regression, Quality can be
involved at all levels of such block creation.  "Its turtles all the way
down".

I believe that the creativity of the human mind is its most valuable asset.
 We can create where there is nothing.

Regards,
Mark

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