From: Michael Hamilton (thethemichael@gmail.com)
Date: Thu May 12 2005 - 09:26:28 BST
Hi Ian, Mark and any others
ian said:
You wouldn't be the first to see a nihilistic conclusion to the
inclusion of the subjective aspect in "reality", but I have to say - I
see the opposite. Every reason to take Quality more seriously than
mere objectivity.
me now:
This is my view also. However, Mark's rephrasing of his concerns made me
realise that these concerns are quite pertinent, and we need to address them
if we're to sustain our non-nihilist views of Quality.
Mark, I'd like to try and condense your questions into a more concise form
so that I can be sure that I understand them, and can focus my thoughts more
easily:
Q: If the quality of a creative effort (e.g. an essay or piece of music) is
indefinable, how can we hope to *improve* our creative efforts?
Does this capture it? Or is there more to it?
I don't know of any simple Pirsigian answers that I can reel off, so I'm
into the realm of exploration - good! My understanding of the MOQ has become
a little "static" since reading Lila last autumn, and your questions touch
the all-important application of the MOQ to our life's efforts.
A few ideas are foming already. When I write an essay, I am defining quality
in a certain way - I'm creating a static pattern, and imbuing it with
whatever I choose to value. Also, there are two separate facets to an essay:
the static pattern of language (social) that the essay is composed of, and
the intellectual patterns in my mind that I am attempting to convey through
the social medium of language. Now, I see quality/value as being a
relationship between things, and looking at the relationship between the
intellectual and social levels of an essay, I see an important component of
the essay's quality: the effectiveness with which the social component
communicates the intellectual component. The latter is totally dependant on
the former. This is a roundabout, MOQ-speak way of saying that
lucidity/clarity of expression is always a factor in the quality of an
essay. In saying this, I'm aware that I'm defining quality to an extent, but
I think the fact that an essay is already defined (as the expression of an
intellectual pattern by means of social patterns), allows me to do this.
That train of thought took me further than I expected! I seem to have a
partial answer to your question: in the case of essay-writing, one can
improve the quality of one's efforts by practicisng lucid, concise
expression. This criterion can be established by analysing the essential
nature of essay-writing (the 4 levels are a great tool for this). Now, to
draw on Virtue Theory, I can suggest ways of fostering lucidity and
conciseness: find a model to emulate, i.e. read examples of lucid, concise
writing, and practice. Also, consider the vocabulary of your intended
readership, and research useful technical vocabulary if this is appropriate
to your readership (these last suggestions arise from a consideration of the
quality relationship between writer and reader, which looks to me like
another promising train of thought...)
Mark, your questions provided excellent food for thought, and I hope this
response does likewise. Naturally, I'll be fascinated to read your
responses, criticisms and additional ideas!
Mike
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