From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon May 31 2004 - 17:09:18 BST
Dear Anthony,
Thanks for your prompt response to my request for you analysis of Chomsky's
worldview vis a vis the MOQ. To keep this thread within the bounds of
Pirsig's metaphysics rather than go off on a tangent to discuss Chomsky's
beliefs, I'd like to focus on your quotation from Pirsig about intellectuals:
“Like so many words, ‘intellectual’ has different meanings that are confused.
The first confusion is between the social title, ‘Intellectual,’ and the
intellectual level itself. The statement, ‘Some intellectuals are not
intellectual at all,’ becomes meaningful when one recognizes this
difference."
Compare this to your statements about "academic credentials" which, from the
emphasis you place on them, appears to be your criteria for placing
intellectuals within the intellectual level itself and not merely holders of
the social title.
> Firstly, Chomsky only really came to my attention after I received an e-mail
> from my supervisor (Prof. Stephen Clark) who announced Chomsky’s visit to
> Liverpool in early April. If you examine Clark’s academic credentials
> (http://www.liv.ac.uk/~srlclark/srlc.html) I highly doubt that he would direct
> his faculty to make an effort to see a speaker such as Chomsky without good
> reason.
>
> I’ve carried out a brief internet search for the academic credentials of the
> people who you noted (on May 5th) as believing Chomsky to be a ‘Communist
> flack’ (such as Anders G. Lewis, J.D. Cassidy, Keith Windschuttle, Nick Cohen
> and Pejman Yousefzadeh) and have had little luck. If you could provide these,
> this would certainly be helpful in assessing their credibility – at least, for
> anyone interested in following-up this line of research. Any information
> concerning the funding/financial backing of Lewis et al would also assist in
> judging their biases, if any.
Not only do you statements award a high level of intellectual authenticity to those
with academic credentials (those with PhD's at least I presume) but you also
imply that by the simple fact of being academics that they are more likely
than the average guy to be free of biases.
While I'm tempted to refute the latter implication about the susceptibility
of academics to biases (even science which claims to be objective is
subjective according to Pirsig), I'd like to follow up on this distinction
between a social level intellectual and intellectual level intellectual that
Pirsig made in his letter to Paul. As you know, in that letter he was talking
about Lila because some had tried to claim that she was without intellect
based on Pirsig's sentence in the book that intellectually she was "nowhere."
As he says, that did not mean that she "was lying on the cabin floor
unconscious." It simply meant that few if anyone would bestow the social
tittle "intellectual" on her, anymore than one would apply that approbation
to Barbara Streisand.
In the same letter, Pirsig says intellect "can be defined very loosely as the
level of independently manipulable signs. Grammar, logic and mathematics can
be described as the rules of this sign manipulation." That includes just
about everyone who thinks rationally. But my favorite description of the
intellect that Pirsig puts in the same letter is the following:
"For anyone who really wants to know what intellect is I think definitions
are not the place to start. Since definitions are a part of the intellectual
level the only person who will understand a definition of intellect is a
person who is already an intellectual and thus has the answer before he even
asks."
So suggesting some some sort of academic credentials are necessary for
entrance into the gates of the intellectual level seems a bit over-emphasized
especially when you consider that Chomsky has none in the field of global
politics or international affairs, nor has Pirsig any in the field of
philosophy.
I take heart from just these two examples because I am no "credentialed"
intellectual. I try to judge a written work solely on its merits, regardless
of the author's reputation. Of course, it our society it's awfully difficult
to escape completely from the celebrity syndrome or cult of personality. I'm
just as readily suckered as anybody else.
To sum up, I'll go along with Pirsig. If you ask what the intellectual level
is, you're already know. Academic credentials not required. It's like Quality
that way.
Best regards and thanks again,
Platt
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