From: Glenn Bradford (gmbradford19@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Sep 29 2004 - 01:32:45 BST
Hi DMB,
I'd just like to refute a few things Pirsig says in
chapter twelve and ask you a follow-up question. I'll
be brief.
Pirsig says:
1) "There is no direct scientific connection between
mind and matter."
There is a direct scientific connection. Magnetic
resonance imaging shows that a person's brain changes
when his mind thinks about something different (say,
by flashing images of idyllic pastoral scenes followed
by graphic scenes of war).
Pirsig says:
2) "The world of objects imposes itself upon the mind
with no social mediation whatsoever... But a close
examination shows it isn't so."
Actually, a simple example shows it *is* so. A cat has
a mind and isn't socializable, yet the world of
objects imposes itself on the cat because it can see
objects and manouvre around objects and chase objects
with no problem.
Pirsig says:
3) "Our intellectual descriptions of nature are always
culturally derived."
This is true, but only in the obvious sense that ideas
build upon one another like Schliemann's strata. The
underlying aim of this statement, however, is to
expose the "myth of objectivity", and this is
unconvincing. Whose to say that, given enough time,
isolated cultures that remain independent won't
eventually reach the same intellectual descriptions of
nature that the West has reached.
David, you seem to agree with the sentiment that
objectivity is a myth even though you said later in
the same post that "we can't deviate from the true Tao
even if we want to" and some other mumbo-jumbo about
"the principle of rightness, the Quality that holds
the world together". Wilber chimes in with
"[worldviews] are actually CONSTRAINED by the currents
of the Kosmos". Apparently scientists are not privy to
such wonderfulness as Tao trueness, Quality glue, and
Kosmos currents and must accept a second rate kind of
truth that depends on the acceptance of their culture.
Please explain.
Glenn
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