Re: MD Time

From: ian glendinning (psybertron@gmail.com)
Date: Wed May 25 2005 - 08:04:05 BST

  • Next message: Scott Roberts: "Re: MD Time"

    BTW Scott et al ...

    My little aphorism for the binary chop (clasification) problem is ...

    "Everything comes in three layers, including layers."

    Now that IS an axiom.

    Ian

    On 5/25/05, ian glendinning <psybertron@gmail.com> wrote:
    > Scott,
    >
    > You said - if I may condense ..
    > "Pirsig's division into DQ and SQ is too simple ... [and is in error]
    > ... because it privileges DQ over sq (explicitly)."
    >
    > Agreed, but let's not throw baby (MoQ) out with the bathwater here.
    >
    > D/S - Every binary-chop classification is an intellectual convenience
    > of some zillion shades of grey in complex reality. MoQ is not exempt.
    > DQ / SQ simply identifies an axis, a dimension, a degree of freedom,
    > an issue, our world view must recognise.
    >
    > Q/q - There absolutely is no doubt Dynamics is lost without the static
    > latches - they depend on each other to be where they are. But, anyone
    > trying to be radical is going to tend to favour DQ - it's more
    > exciting, sexy, risky, etc. Anyone being passive and conservative,
    > would have little reason to have an opinion on the matter let alone
    > post one to a discussion board. We are a self-selecting bunch. Except
    > Platt that is, whose reason to contribute is to have fun taunting the
    > radicals :-) - but that makes him perversely Q IMHO. In other words,
    > Q/q is just human nature.
    >
    > So rather than abandoning MoQ - just swap out Metaphysics for Model. A
    > good useful working model of the real world (including human nature,
    > by gad.) But nothing fundamantally metaphysical. There is no
    > metaphysics anyway - MoQ is simply the best of a misguided bunch.
    >
    > Ian
    >
    > On 5/24/05, Scott Roberts <jse885@localnet.com> wrote:
    > > Mike,
    > >
    > > First, a warning that I am more of a MOQ dissenter than a MOQist, so don't
    > > assume that what I say is an interpretation of Pirsig. It's more of a
    > > counter metaphysics.
    > >
    > > In my view, Pirsig's division into DQ and SQ is too simple, in part for the
    > > point you made in an earlier post that the dynamic is the permanent, and the
    > > static is the changing. I have frequently used the phrase "the logic of
    > > contradictory identity" (taken from Nishida) to deal with this: Your raising
    > > the issue of time is another case where the logic of contradictory identity
    > > (LCI) applies. We experience continuity because we change, and experience
    > > change because we are continuous. One has a situation where the LCI is
    > > required when you have two terms, which contradict each other, but at the
    > > same time constitute each other.
    > >
    > > The point of this is to keep the contradictory identity at the forefront,
    > > while metaphysical error occurs when one of the two terms is privileged over
    > > the other. The MOQ, in my view, falls into error because it privileges DQ
    > > over SQ (explicitly so, given that a true-blue MOQist will refer to them as
    > > DQ and sq, not DQ and SQ). Hence, I think you are wrong to say "because the
    > > interaction itself empirically precedes the static patterns". The empirical
    > > is the static pattern, which in being experienced is dynamic.
    > >
    > > My other main gripe against the MOQ is its devaluation of intellect with
    > > respect to DQ. In this, the MOQ continues the modernist error of thinking of
    > > intellect and language as a set of human add-ons to a universe that is
    > > fundamentally without them. Instead, I see Intellect as also being a
    > > dynamic/static contradictory identity, that is, as being at the same
    > > metaphysical level as Quality, and so if one wants to investigate how the
    > > dynamic and static interact, there is no better place for it than
    > > investigating one's own consciousness. But, according to the MOQ, this is an
    > > error, which says we should put our intellect to sleep in order to
    > > experience "pure experience". I consider "pure experience" to be a MOQ
    > > chimera.
    > >
    > > - Scott
    > >
    > > ----- Original Message -----
    > > From: Michael Hamilton
    > > To: moq_discuss@moq.org
    > > Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 4:05 AM
    > > Subject: Re: MD Time
    > >
    > > Hello again,
    > >
    > > Luckily I just stumbled across the relevant chapter of Lila's Child, so I'm
    > > now aware that I'm doing something "dangerous" by trying to tie DQ to an
    > > existing concept. I definitely need to clarify my suggestion.
    > >
    > > By "Time", I wasn't referring to the concepts we have of before and after,
    > > or the arbitary ways in which we divide time into minutes and seconds and so
    > > forth. If it's even possible, I was referring to time in a concept-free way,
    > > as the thoroughly empirical and undefined Big Long Now, equivalent to
    > > Pirsig's wordier description "the first slice of undifferentiated
    > > experience". I guess that Pirsig's description is much better, because
    > > "Time" has a monstrous amount of philosophical, conceptual and scientific
    > > baggage attached to it.
    > >
    > > However, I still think that the MOQ leads to all sorts of interesting
    > > thoughts about time, with the proviso that these thoughts always involve
    > > intellectual conceptualisations. Time is the constant interaction of static
    > > patterns, though calling it "interaction" is misleading, because the
    > > interaction itself empirically precedes the static patterns. The success of
    > > a static pattern in this constant interaction (time) determines its quality.
    > > And so on...
    > >
    > > Regards,
    > > Mike
    > >
    >

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