Everyone,
Here is a new slant to this debate! You guys HAVE to concede something....
"Rob values eating ice cream"
"Iron filings value movement towards a magnet"
These examples demonstrate two fundamentally different types of value. Both are
experienced, but the quality is different. The first quality is intrinsic, felt,
active. The second is independent, inferred, passive.
Pirsig states that A precludes B implies A values B. When *I* am hot and hungry
and see ice cream on the table *I* move towards it to taste the high quality
sweet, cool, appealing texture. Whether one takes a deterministic view or not,
this is what happens; there is not necessarily an "I" but there is this definite
experience of value.
But when a dog comes to bite me, there is opposition. One can infer (and must
infer according to Pirsig) that the dog values biting me. But there is no
intrinsic value of this within the sphere of experience. The experienced value is
directly opposite -- to prevent the dog from biting. But despite the value to
move away from the experience, it approaches. Dogs bite!
There is a struggle within experience. That which is valued vs. that which seems
to be valued externally.
One can infer the dog values biting me, but only after *assuming* there is an
external reality of a dog that *also* experiences value. Internal value; External
value. Self; Other. Duality.
It is ironic. Experience creates every intuition of a self. But the self shows
itself nowhere. Reality is not dual, but it sure is dualistic.
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