Note: until we reached the level of understanding where sentience began to
show us our responsibilities toward the Quality function we operated vis a
vis Quality just as do the lower forms of life. Now that we are beginning
to understand the consequences of our actions vis a vis the universe and
the biosphere we can see that we represent another step up the ladder of
Quality. Since all humans do not have the same level of understanding we
have the operation of "many truths" to enable all of us to grow toward
Quality. Pirsig says that since sentient individuals do not have the same
level of understanding then each of us has his\her own level of Truth from
which we judge the operation of Quality.
P63 Logical positivists say that only the natural sciences can investigate
the nature of reality.
P63 Mystics - Mystics share a common belief that the fundamental nature of
reality is outside language. That language splits things up into parts
while the true nature of of reality is undivided.
P64 Quality diesn't have to be defined. Quality is indivisible,
undefinable, and unknowable is the sense that there is a knower and a
known. A metaphysics must be divisible, definable, and knowable, or there
isn't any metaphysics. Since a metaphysics is essentially a kind of
dialectical definition and since Quality is essentially outside definition,
this means that a Metaphysics of Quality is essentially a contradiction in
terms, a logical absurdity.
Positivism is a philosophy that emphasizes science as the only source of
knowledge. it sharply distinguishes between fact and value and is hostile
to religion and traditional metaphysics. It is an outgrowth of empiricism,
the idea that all knowledge must come from experience. Philosophy, as far
as positivism is concerned, is limited to the analysis of scientific
language.
But it doesn't matter. The MoQ not only passes the logical positivists
tests
for meaningfulness, it passes them with the highest marks.
The MoQ restates the empirical basis of logical positivism with more
precision, more inclusiveness, more explanatory power than it has
previously had. It says that values are not outside of the experience that
logical positivism limits itself to. They are the essence of this
experience. Values are more empirical than subjects and objects. P66
P67The MoQ would take this separate category, Quality, and show how it
contains within itself both subjects and objects. The MoQ would show how
things become enormously more coherent when you start with an assulmption
that Quality is the primary empirical reality of the world.
P97 Because Quality is morality. Make no mistake about it. They're
identical. And if Quality is the primary reality of the world then that
means morality is also the primary reality of the world. The world is
primarily a moral order.
P 99 The test of truth are logical consistency, agreement with
experience, and economy of explanation.
P 99 The MoQ says that the values of art and morality and even religious
mysticism are verifiable.
P 99 If a thing has no value it isn't distinguished from anything else--a
thing that has no value does not exist. The thing has not created the
value, the value has created the thing.
P99-100 Unlike SoM the MoQ does not insist on a single exclusive truth.
If subjects and objects are held to be the ultimate reality then we are
permitted only one construction of things, that which corresponds to the
objective world. But if Quality or excellence is seen as the ultimate
reality then it becomes possible for more than one set of truths to exist.
Then one doesn't seek the absolute truth. one seeks instead the highest
quality intellectual explanation of things with the knowledge that if the
past is any guide to the future this explanation must be taken
provisionally, as useful until something better comes along (MANY TRUTHS)
CAUSATION- P103 In the MoQ causation of a metaphysical term that can be
replaced by value. To say that A causes B or to say that B values
Precondition A is to say the same thing. The term cause can be struck out
completely from a scientfic description of the universe without any loss of
accuracy or completeness.
The word cause implies absolute certainty whereas the implied meaning of
value is one of preference.
P104 SUBSTANCE Substance is composed of stable inorganic patterns of
value. Strike out the word substance and substitute stable inorganic
patterns of value.
Chap 9 108 thru 121. Division of static good and dynamic good . Story of
the Brujo.
The mythos, the culture in whjich we live.
P139 Lila is composed of static patterns of value and these patterns are
evolving toward a Dynamic Quality.
All life is a migration of static patterns of quality toward dynamic
quality.
Lila Chap 10 P158 What the evolutionary structure of the MoQ shows is
that there is not just one moral system. There are many............
P159 What is today conventionally called "morality" covers only one of
these sets of moral codes, The social-biological code. (Humanity only)
In a subject-object metaphysics this single social-biological code is
considered to be a minor, "subjective,"physically non-existent part of the
universe. But in the MoQ all these sets of morals, plus another, Dynamic
Morality, are not only real, they are the whole thing.
And as a matter of fact that looked like the answer to Rigel's question
that had been bugging him all day: "Does Lila Have Quality?"
Biologically she does, socially she doesn't. EVOLUTIONARY MORALITY just
splits that whole question open like a watermelon. Since biological and
social patterns have almost nothing to do with each other, Lila does and
Lila does not have Quality at the same time...............
How simple it was. Thats the mark of a high quality theory. It doesn't
just answer the question in some complex round-about way. It dissolves the
question, so you wonder why you ever asked it.
P 409 Good is a noun. That was it. That was what Phaedrus had been
looking for. That was the homer, over the fence, that ended the ball game.
Good as a noun rather than as an adjective is all the MoQ is about. Of
course, the ultimate Quality isn't a noun or an adjective, or anything else
definable, but if you had to reduce the whole MoQ to a single sentence,
that would be it.
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