Jason Gaedtke (jgaedtke@gb.frontiernet.net)
Wed, 24 Sep 1997 19:22:37 +0100
Hugo,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I think that your post has made a
great stride in moving the discussion forward and promoting a better
understanding of the fundamentals of the MoQ. I'm sure others will take
issue with some of the details, but you have focussed in on the central
issues and given us a common starting point for discussion.
My initial reaction regards your suggestion that self-consciousness or
self-awareness may fit best at the intellectual level. The problem that I
foresee is that of an isolated individual or organism raised in virtual
isolation -- that is, with only minimal social contact. Wouldn't you agree
that such an individual would have some sort of self-awareness? (I'm
intentionally avoiding the use of the term consciousness here, because I
think that the ambiguity of the term may lead to conflict and confusion.)
Based on this hypothetical, I would suggest that the most fundamental
aspects of self-awareness (including emotions) reside best at the organic
level. (I think Pirsig briefly comments on this in the SODV paper -- see
the top of pg. 15.) As such, the intellectual level would contain only the
abstract and creative 'world of ideas' to which you referred. I adamantly
agree with your observation that the emergence of such ideas is dependent
upon the shared wisdom and knowledge of the social level.
The obvious potential problem with the "self-awareness as organic"
suggestion is that some "social organisms" do not seem to demonstrate full
self-awareness. IMO, this is simply due to the fact that these organisms
have not evolved to the degree that we as humans have. If they possessed
the same sophisticated brain structures, I believe that their fundamental
"awareness" would be similar to our own. As our nearest neighbors in the
animal kingdom, the primates may provide the best example of such evolving
"awareness." Each time I visit the zoo I am amazed at the similarity
between primate behavior and our own.
Comments anyone?
Jason
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