From: Steve & Oxsana Marquis (marquis@nccn.net)
Date: Mon Jun 27 2005 - 22:26:43 BST
Part 2 of 3
Now, what can be said about coherence at the intellect-DQ interface? If
intellect is to remain the highest order static level and the purpose /
drive / telos of DQ is further evolution then coherence at this level has
got to be DQ's influence on the reorganization of intellectual static
patterns for there is no higher static level to evolve to. This is a
consequence of not allowing a 'spiritual' static level or some such (poor
label I realize). Creativity and intuition is DQ 'spilling over' into the
intellectual static level.
With continuous sifting of intellectual patterns of value we finally arrive
at agency. I believe how we handle agency to be the key to comprehending
this 'intellectual mess'. Agency, that ability to choose one thing or
another, is defined in one of my favorite Pirsig quotes (paraphrased) as
'the ability to respond to Dynamic Quality'. Why I think this is such a gem
is that 'respond to' implies dualism, yet DQ, if we just call it Quality, is
the monistic Tao ineffable underlying everything, including dualism. Yes,
an SOM dualistic perspective is necessary for agency. 'Self' awareness,
awareness of the self as separate from the rest, is the start of the SO
divide. And, it is this very awareness that enables recognition of agency,
for it is the self that is the agent. This is also the birth of
individualism.
That said, what happens if we believe only in SOM and throw DQ out? Why, we
end up with Existentialism, that terrible freedom of choosing, but with no
relationship to anything, thus no potential for growth. Pirsig's statement
keeps the two together, the contradiction of the not-one and the not-many.
A side note: It is interesting how much SOM bashing we do; yet we use SOM
pragmatically all the time, including the analysis to SOM bash. And SOM
turns out to be one of the latest steps in a long chain of evolution. If we
accept Pirsig's proposition that evolution is aimed at higher Quality, then
SOM must be fairly high quality.
Pirsig's version of agency resolves the free will issue, of course, which is
very difficult to get a handle on from the SOM frame of reference alone.
Now, if the agent can respond to DQ what static pattern that is part of this
coherent family of static patterns we call agency is responsive? If agency
is one epitome of intellectual evolution (no other level to evolve to
right?) then whatever 'static' pattern we wish to associate with agency has
got to reside in the intellectual level. The buck stops there.
Allen wrote:
____________
Intuition may be helpfuly thought of as a self organising principle within
the static repertiore which is beyond analytical division.
___________
A mouthful Allen, but I think we are saying the same thing. For evolution
to continue at the intellectual level there has to be some connection like
this. Yes, it has to be beyond analysis for it to interface with DQ. The
highest quality philosophy, IMO, opens the door to mysticism.
In my previous post I split reasoning into analytic and synthetic on more or
less Hegelian lines and associated deduction with the former and induction
with the later. This might be overly simplistic. I believe there is a
four-way combination here. Nevertheless, I think we're on to something.
Continued with Part 3
Live Well,
Steve
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jun 27 2005 - 23:18:24 BST