Hi Scott & all,
From: Scott R <jse885@spinn.net>
> Lastly, a while back I objected to the sentiment of "anything languaged
> is not the thing itself", not because it is untrue (the English word
> "cow" is not a cow) but in the thought that there is any thing (which
> excludes Quality, which is not a thing) that is not itself another sign
> in another language, albeit one not of spoken words or marks on paper. I
> feel the "the map is not the territory" mantra is SOM-ish.
>
> - Scott
Gary's response: "The map is not the territory" [Which was first stated by
Alfred Korzybski in 1933 in his book Science and Sanity.] is not
Subject/Object Metaphysics. It is very much the acknowledgment of
transcending SOM. Pirsig didn't invent the Mind-Body split, which is
another way of saying SOM. The essence of SOM is that the Mind/the
observer/the Subject is different from the body/the observed/the object. To
say that 'the word is not the thing' or 'the map is not the territory' is to
say that all human efforts are just that, attempt by humans to talk about a
pre-human Reality which does exist outside of our minds and before our
linguistic analysis of that Reality. The phrases are just reminding the
listener and the speaker that we are always making maps and discussing maps.
The Territory is Reality and it is before human language and can not be
contained by human language. The phrase is the acknowledgment of that
permanent realization. The territory is always bigger, more complex, more
intricate, more and more and more than any single human statement. MOQ is
all about realizing that Quality [to use a Classic term] or the Tao [to use
a Romantic term] is the totality of existence. It can be differentiate into
many connected parts. [It is all a hierarchy of Holons (a thing which is
both a whole and a part, not merely one or the other.)--i.e. a Holarchy.]
Since Quality/Tao is everything it therefore gives everything its structure,
those stable patterns of Quality. Thus we get the physical form of the
Universe. We are a form of Quality who observes other forms of Quality. We
are the observer and the observed. We are the subject and the object.
Under MOQ and Taoism, there is no difference between matter and energy, mind
and body. It is all forms/patterns of Quality/Tao.
Bye,
Gary
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