Hi Keith, Jonathan, Magnus, Bo et. al.
I'm not quite sure what all the fuss regarding maps and metaphors is about. The
MoQ is not __Quality__, it is a means by which we are trying to describe Quality,
so at best is a PART of Quality. First Quality is broken down into DQ and SQ,
then SQ is further subdivided into the 4 levels. In order to describe what we
believe 'reality' to be, what we experience and what we believe others experience
we use language. Language is inherently inaccurate when it comes to describing
what we experience and as a consequence often reverts to metaphor. So the
language that we use to describe what we experience is the basis of the
map/territory and moq/quality analogy. Pirsig uses the analogy in a very similar
way as is shown in the opening post of this mailing list.
It is something that I've brought up time and again in various posts. Describing the
MoQ as a map is perfectly reasonable as long as this is borne in mind and the
map is not mistaken for the territory in the same way that the MoQ should not be
confused with Quality.
Our experiences cannot be directly conveyed to each other so we use a medium
of exchange - language - which is quite rightly described as rich in metaphor.
I don't agree that reality is something that we are not able to experience - it is all
that we are able to experience. I also don't agree that experience of Quality is
inherently mystical, as according to the MoQ it is Quality that is responsible for
what we are and if we aren't able to experience this then what do we experience.
It's when we come to explain what we experience that the trouble starts.
If someone can come up with a way of letting me experience exactly what
another experiences then I will be quite happy to drop language altogether as it
will then be redundant. Until then I'll keep looking at my map and comparing it
with everyone elses.
Horse
"Making history, it turned out, was quite easy.
It was what got written down.
It was as simple as that!"
Sir Sam Vimes.
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