Wim,All
You asked:
> I thought as much about Wilber, but where did Pirsig say
> something of the kind? I am not aware of his relativism on this
> issue.
In the start of Lila Chapter 12 Pirsig says:
" In this plain of understanding static patterns of value are divided in
to four systems: ... They are exhaustive. That's all there are. If you
construct and encyclopedia of four topics.... nothing is left out. No
"thing" that is. Only Dynamic Quality, which cannot be described in any
encyclopedia, is absent."
"This classification of patterns is not very original, but the
Metaphysics of Quality allows an assertion about them that is unusual.
It says, they are not continuous. They are discrete. .."
While it's clear that Pirsig intends that the levels as a whole are all
inclusive, not continuous, but discrete, nowhere can I find that further
division of the levels into sublevels would violate its basic tenents.
If we read on in the beginning of Chapter 13 we find:
" What the evolutionary structure of the Metaphysics of Quality shows is
that there is not just one moral system. There are many."
..."laws of nature" ..."law of the jungle"... "the law"
My liberal interpretation Pirsig on "relativism" or as I prefer the
"many leveled" internal structure of static levels is based on the word
"many", the plural nature of "laws", and hierachical relationship of the
system as a whole.
"There’s a principle in physics that if a thing can’t be distinguished
from anything else it doesn’t exist. To this the metaphysics of quality
adds a second principle: if a thing has no value it isn't distinguished
from anything else. Then putting the two together, A thing that has no
value does not exist." Lila pg 114
The phrase that had always caught my eye was, "A thing that has no value
does not exist.". This however, this is made possible by Pirsig addition
of, "if a thing has no value it isn't distinguished from anything else."
plus the original physics principle accepted by Pirsig "if a thing
can’t be distinguished from anything else it doesn’t exist."
So a corollary might be: If a pattern of values has no values
distinguishing it from other patterns, is not a discrete pattern, it
doesn't exist. Thus "discreteness" is an essential quality of any
pattern of values, both between the static levels and internal to them.
Once you get there it then becomes a matter of preference and utility
how patterns get grouped. A process that often leads to platypi.
But as Rog often says I could be wrong.
3WD
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