Wed, 28 Oct 1998 Platt Holden wrote:
> Hi Jonathan, Magnus and LS:
> Jonathan B. Marder wrote:
> > Who says Lila has more than biological value? To me the sanctity of
> > human life applies to every living person. It applies to the aged, the
> > young, the mute, the blind, the crippled, the paralyzed, the "simple"
> > Their lives are valued just because they are ALIVE. That's a biological
> > classification.
> May I suggest the following Pirsigian change to your assertion:
> "Their lives are valued just because they are HUMAN. That's an
> inorganic, biological, social and intellectual classification."
> > Magnus, I have a very deep aversion to any person or philosophy that
> > rejects this fundamental ethical value.
> Are there not fundamental ethical values that call for the
> sacrifice of human life? If not, what do you say to those who
> died on Omaha Beach so that you and I would be free to discuss
> fundamental ethical values?
> Platt
Hi Platt, Magnus, Jonathan and Squad
What Platt says puts things right. Of late a lot of strange
understandings of the MOQ have crept into the discussion. The good
man Jonathan defends the human rights as if those are SOCIAL values -
EVEN BIOLOGICAL!!. Fintan chimes in and says that society should
range above intellect, and so does Richard B too (I believe?).
Magnus intervened to correct matters, but was grossly misunderstood
by Jonathan. Platt, however, found the example that demonstrates the
MOQ stance. Let me only add this:
****************************************
First, the various static value patterns are not evolutionary levels
left behind. They are as valid today as ever and they are us; not
anything "out there". Moreover, they are moral patterns and
Biological Morals do not contain "mercy", the life of other
individuals has no value at that level. What matters is survival and
proliferation. Through this "survival of the fittest" Life has grown
ever more diversified, and the most advanced form - humans - reached
a stage where societies, more complex than the semi-biological family
configuration, developed.
Only at the Social Moral plane does individual worth emerge, but
merely to the degree that it could contribute to the common cause,
and in a sense is the Social Pattern of Value (SoPoV) just as
"primitive" as it was in100 000 BC, and if some catastrophe should
make humans fall back to the next static latch we would be just as
"merciless" as the Inuits who left their old to die on ice floes
(something which was accepted and endorsed by those affected).
I won't go into the development of the Intellect, but here the idea
of self and its value slowly emerges. This ancient Intellect - still
very much part of (in the service of ) society" - is immensely
older than the events described in ZMM, but over the aeons this
new-fangled value spawned countless modifactions to the human
communities until it "took over" so that the former social-societies
became intellectual-societies as described in ZMM and LILA.
Speaking about social values as "heart" (Fintan) is possibly right,
SoPoV works through emotions so it is heart all right, but it is
hatred as well, one moment we feel its warmth, the next it demands
sacrifice for its own survival. And sacrifice has been given and
will be given,Platt's allusion to the Allied landing in Normandie
highlights it: Biology (life) was overruled by Society and the the
individuals - who constitute all value levels - responded by
duty...the arch social value.
One final thing about each static level's "jurisdiction" which - in
addition to itself - is the pattern below. In that capacity Intellect
influences society heavily. It is often said that the allied
soldiers gave their lives for freedom and democracy, and that's right
in the sense of SOCIETIES INFLUENCED BY THOSE IDEALS, but the
Intellect has no direct sway over Biology, only Society has the power
to move individuals to the extreme.
Bodvar
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