From: Wim Nusselder (wim.nusselder@antenna.nl)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 22:31:19 BST
Dear Ian,
Thanks for your interest (26 Aug 2003 15:09:06 +0100). A pity that your
reply doesn't seem to touch the core of what I wrote: the interplay of
voluntary and involuntary behaviour.
I use Maslow's categories of supposedly objective, universal needs only as
an indication of the range of possible wants and of their development
towards growing complexity in the course of history. I don't see a clear
relation between his hierarchy and Pirsig's levels.
Can you explain your sentence:
'I hold a similar view of Pirsig that the actual levels chosen are only as
absolute as the world-view you hold, but the Jungian framework is more than
plausible, provided you're flexible about the motivations you attribute to
specific layers.'
It didn't make much sense to me.
Did you refer to ideas of Maslow with 'the happiness perspective from within
a stable system vs the
hindsight perspective after some significant economic or cultural change'? I
don't know them.
Do you happen to know about a body of research of 'happiness' in different
populations all over the world taking (approximately) Maslow's categories of
needs as basis and trying to measure their relative levels of satisfaction?
There must be, I guess, as Maslow started a whole school in psychology,
hypothesized decreasing percentages of satisfaction when going up the
hierarchy and presented (in 1943) his theory as a 'program or framework for
future research'. (I'm not a psychologist. If you are, you will surely be
able to direct me efficiently to such research.)
As to the question to what extent people are born with certain attributes or
learn them (which you refer to evolutionary psychology), I tend to rule the
analysis of 'inborn' attributes out of economics, except that the IDEA that
people should be treated differently relative to certain supposedly (not
necessarily real) 'inborn' attributes functions as an organizing principle
in primary and secondary economies. Whether these supposedly 'inborn'
attributes chosen to distinguish 'those who belong' from those who don't
(primary economies) or those who deserve power from those who deserve
subjection are 'really' the result of nature of nurture is irrelevant to my
analysis.
With friendly greetings,
Wim
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Aug 27 2003 - 22:56:25 BST