[MD] Intellectual level of MOQ

[David Thomas]

John,

Welcome to the "reality" of MoQ.org. As others have mentioned there has been
a long running disagreement here about the nature of the upper two static
levels. Particularly the intellectual.

The only way I have been able to square Pirsig's writing and comments on the
intellectual level is by separating "intellect" (the capacity of the brain
to abstract and reason) from "intellectual", which doesn't emerge until
groups are literate. Intellectual artifacts, writing both words and numbers,
are at least three levels of abstraction removed from experience. The key to
this split is that the information persists independent from the author and
can be shared, critiqued, modified, and debunked and/or improved over time.


But like Ian I'm more comfortable with just three levels, maybe,
physical-biological-cultural. Kant to the most recent neurological studies
suggest that "reason" or "intellect" is anything but pure. And trying to
definitively classify any particular pattern as "intellectual" in our modern
"media is the message" world is nearly impossible.

Happy editing,

Dave