Bodvar, Glenn, 3WD and every MOQer:
Bo, to answer your post-scripted question, this is the thread that was
supposed to examine "the emergence of SOM". Unfortunately, this "failure of
the Enlightenment" thread never really got off the ground. The good news is
that Ken Wilber has quite alot to say about it. And Wilber's picture of
reality is close to Pirsig's. I think he can really help us get a handle on
the MOQ, even if he's never heard of it. For example, I think the following
resonates well with Pirsig. Its from page 59 of his INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY.
"Modernity, it is said, marked the death of God, the commodification of
life, the leveling of qualitative distinctions, the brutalities of
capitalism, the replacement of quality by quantity, the loss of value and
meaning, the fragmentation of the lifeworld, existential dread, polluting
industrialization, a rampant and vulgar materialism - all of which have
often been summarized in the phrase made famous by Max Weber: "the
disenchantment of the world"."
This description of modernity describes the failure of the Enlightenment -
and the effects of SOM. They're all just different names for the same thing.
Yesterday's post in the "What is SOM?" thread has even more quotes about
scientific materialism and modernity, which are yet more ways to refer to
this same failure. Its huge. We're talking about nothing less than the
dominant worldview of the modern West.
Their solutions are pretty similar too. Just as Pirsig insists that all
intellectual values must be culturally derived, Wilber too insists that the
benefits of the previous ages must be integrated with the fruits of this
age. They both lament the tendency by scientific materialism to dismiss
social values and our subjective realities, and they both propose ways to
honor them and re-integrate them. Think of the way Pirsig says we have to go
back and re-ask what those social level values were all about. Think about
the way he recommends Campbell's MASKS OF GOD to learn about the social
level's deepest values. Think about Pirsig's claim that the MOQ is actually
based on the oldest idea in the world. Think of all that and then look at
how Ken Wilber opens his INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY...
"A TRULY INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY would embrace the enduring insight of
premodern, modern, and postmodern sources. To begin with the premodern or
traditional sources, the easiest access to their wisdom is through what has
been called the prennial philosophy, or the common core of the world's great
spiritual traditions. As Huston Smith, Arthur Lovejoy, Ananda Coomaraswamy,
and other scholars of these tradtions have pointed out, the core of the
prennial philosophy is the view that reality is composed of various LEVELS
OF EXISTENCE (emphasis is Wilber's) - levels of being and of knowing -
ranging from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit. Each senior dimension
transcends and includes its juniors, so that this is a conception of wholes
within wholes within wholes indefinitely, reaching from dirt to divinity."
PAGE 5
The idea that there are levels of existence is most ancient, universal and
cross-cultural. Along with the idea of transcendence itself, this must be
the oldest idea. Wilber also points out that there are many variations
within this basic idea. Some see a few broad levels, some have hundreds of
finely tuned gradations, but they all reach "from dirt to divinity". Not
only does this idea of levels appear in all the world's great religions, it
is confirmed by contemporary scientific research. (Glenn, this is where the
integration of science and morals begins. Its in the marriage of ancient
wisdom and empirical science, or rather in finding the areas where there is
already correspondence)
"It should be realized from the start that these levels and sublevels
presented by the perennial sages are NOT the product of metaphysical
speculation or abstact hairsplitting philosophy. In fact, they are in almost
every case codifications of DIRECT EXPERIENTIAL REALITIES (emphasis is
Wilber's), reaching from sensory experience to mental experience to
spiritual experience. The "levels" in the Great Nest simply reflect the full
spectrum of being and consciousness available for direct experiential
disclosure, ranging from subconscious to self-conscious to superconscious.
... Such is the priceless gift of the ages. This is the core of the
perennial philosophy, and, we might say , it is the part of the perennial
philosophy that has empiricall benn found most dnduring. The evidence
continues overwhelmingly to mount in its favor: human beings have avaiable
to them an extraordinary spectrum of consciousness, reaching from
prepersonal to personal to transpersonal states. The critics who attempt to
deny this overall spectrum do so no by presenting conterevidence - but by
simply refusing to acknowledge the substantial evidence that has already
been amassed; the evidence, nontheless, remains." PAGES 8 and 9
So there it is. The oldest idea transcends cultures and languages, persists
in time and is only confirmed by scientific investigation. I think its safe
to say that this puts us on solid ground and it puts the MOQ in good
company.
So, 3WD, I think those who disagree with the MOQ's levels have made an epic
blunder. Such disagreement contradicts the perennial philospophy, the
saints, the sages and mountains of empirical evidence. Its foolish, to say
the least.
Thanks for your time,
DMB
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