> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Andrea Sosio
> Sent: Tuesday, 6 March 2001 8:37
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: MD Glenn, Platt, Ant and the creation of patterns
>
>
> Hi Elephant, Rick, Glenn, and all gravitating around this threa
>
> if I may jump in... I always thought what Pirsig meant with that
> statement about gravity was
> much simpler... that is, that the "law of gravity" (not
> gravitation) is something in the eye
> (mind) of the (post-Newtonian) observer of falling apples and
> such, and that no such thing was
> in the eye (mind) of the (pre-Newtonian) observer. This makes the
> worlds of the pre- and
> post-N. observers different; both see apples fall, but the latter
> sees them fall according to,
> and due to, the law of gravity. Newton created an intellectual
> pattern that was put into our
> own minds when we went to school, and it became part of the way
> we see the world. With that, I
> also think that Pirsig rejects, or is not interested in, the idea
> that the "real" world is
> something that exists apart of the "world we see"... and that our
> perception of the world,
> that is all we can actually call world at all, is necessarily a
> function of the maps we
> have... so "inventing" the law of gravity changed the world for
> all of us (who studied
> Newton's law at school).
>
The mapping process starts with metonymy, part-for-whole distinctions that
are accumulated and turned into a map. At that point the map becomes a
filter, we give up personal experience to use a group derived filtering
system working on the principle that bigger is better. The price is that we
have surrendered direct, LOCAL, experience for a metaphor, the map.
Faith in gods etc act to leave one in the local, literal interpretations, to
keep the mind of child. Science acts to look BEHIND expressions, to ask HOW,
WHY etc and so attempt to be more precise and that price is the journey from
metonymy to metaphor.
The benefit of the metaphor is that if it is *really* good then it gets
taken literally, map becomes territory and with that comes a dynamic, a
speeding up in group development. BUT the metaphor is then analysed using
the same methods and it is seen to be 'out of date', a new paradigm emerges
and the whole routine is repeated.
Zen, Taoism etc tries to get back to direct experience every now and then;
to drop the FILTERS.
Chris.
------------------
Chris Lofting
websites:
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ddiamond
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