From: Wim Nusselder (wim.nusselder@antenna.nl)
Date: Tue Apr 22 2003 - 22:08:25 BST
Dear Steve,
You described 18 Apr 2003 17:59:34 -0400 an interesting 'awareness
hierarchy':
'an awareness always responds as is morally expected ... within its highest
level of awareness.
...
a molecule will never defy the laws of physics ... because it is unaware of
physical forces.
...
An animal that has only reached the biological level of awareness is aware
of physical forces, but
not biological ones, so never violates biological laws
...
A person or animal that is biologically aware but without social awareness
will violate the law of the jungle and physical laws, but will tend do what
is socially expected of him unless he regresses to a lower level. ... (Since
social laws are not as universal as biological laws and physical laws,
another socially unaware person may see our person's reproduction of copied
behavior as immoral, but from the copier's perspective, he is behaving
morally if he does what his socially expected for his context.)
A person who is socially aware but not intellectually aware will have
conscious motivations for his actions. He always motivate his actions
based on the unconsciously copied rationales that he has accumulated. He
will tend to behave intellectually immorally. He will motivate his actions
with the rationales that are expected of him (within his particular context)
unless he falls back on "irrational" copied behavior or the law of the
jungle.
The intellectually aware person may create new and better rationales by
"thinking about thinking" and seem to be behaving immorally from the
perspective of the person who is not intellectually aware. This person is
still unaware of the possible static patterns he is following but are yet to
be named.'
If I formalize and reformulate a bit (I hope not beyond what you would agree
with), it becomes:
Every entity is aware of the forces operating at the level below the level
whose laws it follows. An inorganic entity is unaware of inorganic forces,
so follows inorganic laws. A biological entity is aware of inorganic forces
(and tries to avoid regression to that level), but unaware of biological
forces, so follows biological laws. A social entity (hominids, maybe some
animals) is aware of inorganic and biological forces (and tries to avoid
regression to these levels), but unaware of social forces, so follows social
laws. An intellectual entity (a member of homo sapiens) is aware of
inorganic, biological and social forces, but unaware of intellectual forces,
so follows intellectual laws.
I run into problems with your last paragraph (as quoted above) though: At
what level does this 'intellectually aware person' of yours follow laws?
Do we need this concept of 'awareness'? Couldn't we write instead that
entities behave morally at the highest level in which they participate, i.e.
at the level in the static pattterns of value of which they are elements?
It reminds me of a similar (?) hierarchy I described 16 Jun 2001 21:59:54
+0200 (for the first time):
'Pirsig writes in ch. 11 of Lila "Biological evolution can be seen as a
process by which weak Dynamic forces at a subatomic level discover
stratagems for overcoming huge static inorganic forces at a superatomic
level."
By analogy I would say "Social evolution can be seen as a process by which
weak Dynamic forces at a subcellular level discover stratagems for
overcoming huge static biological forces at a supercellular level." and
"Intellectual evolution can be seen as a process by which weak Dynamic
forces at an individual level discover stratagems for overcoming huge static
social forces at a collective level."'
With friendly greetings,
Wim
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