[MD] Anti-intellectualism revisited

[david]

That's right, Ron.

Let me spell it out for you, John.

Some dictionaries use the term "objective" and some don't. Wikipedia's page doesn't use the term either. But it doesn't matter anyway because the issue is about the philosophical and metaphysical use of the the term. If you plug "intellect" into the search engine of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, you'll get a little over 300 articles. It's always been a big topic in philosophy and Pirsig's treatment of intellect is part of that story. More specifically, we know that Pirsig takes great pains to spell out the problems with "objectivity" and the metaphysical assumptions behind it. This is the "problem space", as opposed to the "solution space". 
Intellect has this problem and the idea is to fix it. Intellect is not the problem, it HAS a problem. Instead of rejecting objectivity or subject-object metaphysics, you're simply rejecting intellect. Instead of rejecting the corruptions of the church of reason, you're simply rejecting the church of reason. That's the mistake. That's what my criticism is all about. That's the point you repeatedly evade. As far as I can tell, you have not even tried to address that criticism. But you sure have spent a lot of effort avoiding it. Seems like a lot of work for nothing. 

But, hey, you don't even seem to understand what's wrong with straw men. Again, I find this quite disturbing. I really have no idea how (or if) your mind works. 









Ron replied to John by quoting a dictionary and Wikipedia (the term "objective" is found in neither):

Main Entry: in·tel·lect Pronunciation: \ˈin-tə-ˌlekt\Function: nounEtymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin intellectus, fromintellegere to understand — more atintelligentDate: 14th century1 a : the power of knowing as distinguished from the power to feel and to will : the capacity for knowledge b : the capacity for rational or intelligent thought especially when highly developed 2 : a person with great intellectualpowers
Websters online
No mention of the term "objective"

 
> 	Intellect is a term used in studies of thehuman mind, and refers to the ability of the mind to come to correct conclusions about what is true or real, and about how to solve problems. Historically the term comes from the Greek philosophical term nous, which was translated into Latin as intellectus (derived from the verb intelligere) and into French (and then English) as intelligence.
> Discussion of the intellect can be divided into two broad areas. In both of these areas, the terms "intellect" and "intelligence" have continued to be used as related words.
> 
> Intellect and Nous in philosophy. In philosophy, especially in classical andmedieval philosophy the intellect or nous is an important subject connected to the question of how humans can know things. Especially during late antiquity and the middle ages, the intellect was often proposed as a concept which could reconcile philosophical and scientific understandings of nature withmonotheistic religious understandings, by making the intellect a link between each human soul, and the divine intellect (or intellects) of the cosmos itself. (During the Latin Middle Ages a distinction developed whereby the term "intelligence" was typically used to refer to the incorporeal beings which governed the celestial spheres in many of these accounts.[1]) Also see: passive intellectand active intellect.
> Intellect and Intelligence in psychology. In modern psychology and neuroscience, intelligence and intellect are used as terms describing mental ability (or abilities) that allow people to understand. A distinction is sometimes made whereby intellect is considered to be related to "facts" in contrast to intelligence concerning "feelings".[2]Intellect refers to the cognition and rational mental processes gained through external input rather than internal.
> A person who uses intelligence (thought and reason) and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity is often referred to as an intellectual.