From: Scott Roberts (jse885@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Sep 08 2004 - 00:11:04 BST
Platt,
> I like it, but have some suggestions. You omitted a key component--an
> individual PERSON who does the thinking and responding to DQ. (See
inserts
> in caps to your reasoning.) Also, I've changed No. 4 because you
> inadvertently repeated "static intellectual patterns of value," creating
a
> contradiction, and I eliminated the idea that "thought grows plants"
> because thought as Pirsig defines it (collection and manipulation of
> symbols) is limited to humans. (Plants can't read Lila.) Finally, I
> reached a different conclusion.
I am disagreeing with the notion that intellect only happens in people, so
I am declining your suggestions :-). Plants can't read Lila, but they can
-- or their species can -- read the soil they are in, match bits of it with
the pattern of "nutrition" and so take it in and grow. Also, DQ can't
change a lizard into a bird, but it can take the idea of a lizard and use
it to build the idea of a bird (with, no doubt, a lot of trial and error,
for which particulars provide feedback, and maybe not even knowing what it
is building until it gets built -- I'm not trying to support the usual
Intelligent Design argument here).
> Have a missed the point of your reasoning? Perhaps your original text
> about "thought growing plants" is key to your whole approach, i.e., the
> universe is one big thought.
I think so. See my response to Mel for more elaboration on the
all-important first point. "Thought growing plants" might be a little hard
to take, but I see it as a way of saying that plants grow not through
mechanical processes but by matching the particulars of their environment
to general patterns. Embryos grow to be adults by having the pattern of
adulthood (or at least the next stage on the way to adulthood) available,
and so can channel nutrients and split into specialized cells appropriately.
- Scott
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