From: Steve Peterson (peterson.steve@verizon.net)
Date: Tue May 06 2003 - 02:59:22 BST
All,
The following are some thoughts on the MOQ based on the insight that values
are internal to awareness. It seems completely obvious, but I had lost
track of this simple idea in pondering the MOQ. Comments are appreciated.
Quality is the view from within--the only view there is.
MOQ is first and foremost a "subjective" metaphysics. SOM is primarily an
"objective" metaphysics. The MOQ explains the view from within. SOM
imagines a point of view that is independent of awareness.
Values apply to the view from within. They are "subjective" in SOM terms.
Quality=Experience=Reality from an *internal* point of view. From the
outside, values look like causes and tendencies. From the inside, Value is
all there is.
There really is no external point of view. The external point of view is a
derivative one. It is a mental construction. The existence of an objective
reality is inferred from experience that is consistent with other's
experiences. That is why SOM is secondary to the MOQ. It is contained
within the MOQ.
Where is the Quality?
Is Quality in the subject or the object? Quality is all there is. To
experience is to select from the undifferentiated aesthetic continuum called
Quality. But it is not simply "whatever you like." What is labeled
"objective reality" by SOM is Quality that is experienced consistently from
person to person. What is called "subjective reality" in SOM is that
Quality which is not experienced uniformly from person to person.
This "subjective reality" is not simply created by the subject, though the
subject participates in its creation. The subject's selection from the
aesthetic continuum is based on previously collected analogues. Anyone with
the same previous experience would experience Quality in the same way.
Quality creates subjects and objects
Every subjects responds to the world based on the quality that it is aware
of. The object of experience is inferred from the Quality experienced. The
subject was, too. Experience is experience of Quality. Consciousness is
defined by experience. Without something to be conscious of, there is no
consciousness. Thus consciousness is created by Quality. That is why
Pirsig says, subjects and objects are deduced from Quality.
Free Will
Are we with our sense of free will like water believing that it wills itself
to go down stream? If we could ask it, it would probably say that it
prefers to do that. Sitting in a pond it thinks, I could bubble and flow
and evaporate or rain down or even snow if I wanted to, but right now I'm
content to just be at peace.
So free will is just an illusion? No. Free will is part of the view from
within. Determinism is what things look like from outside. But the
internal view is primary, the external one is the one that is derivative,
thus the MOQ supports free will while SOM is stuck in determinism.
Why does the ball fall to the ground when I let it go? The only way to know
is to ask the ball. Motivation is always internal to awareness. We see
what happens to dropped objects and infer a causal law. But this
determinism is the *external* description, not the view from within. Only
the ball as subject knows why it did what it did. "Whys" only apply to
internals not externals.
From the outside we perceive A causes B. From B's point of view, B values
precondition A.
I've always hated when someone thinks that they know why I did what I did.
Why? Now I know. Because they were objectifying me. They were denying my
agency. I did what I did because I chose to do it--as the sun chooses to
rise each day and as the earth chooses to revolve around the sun.
Degenerate Metaphysics
Pirsig first realized that Experience is Value. Further equating Experience
with Reality, the Metaphysics of Quality is complete.
Pirsig then thought about looking at values externally and to classify them
resulting in the MOQ as presented in Lila. This "objective" view is
derivative. It is only a mental construction. It is itself a value. The
MOQ assumes the possibility of an external view of Quality (reality) that
Pirsig's original Quality insight says does not exist. That is why
creating it was a degenerate activity. In applying the MOQ, we are only
looking at Value from the outside. (How could we understand values from
outside? Then why did he do it? For the same reason we do anything,
because doing so seems to have more quality than not.)
MOQ Levels
From the inside, there is free will to do what one recognizes to be the
highest quality action. From the outside, values look more like forces.
From the outside, things and animals and people seem forced to do what they
do.
Inorganic values are the forces that hold substances together (e.g. gravity)
Biological values are the forces that hold a living being together (e.g.
photosynthesis)
Social values are the forces that hold a society together (e.g. laws)
Intellectual values are the forces that hold ideas together (e.g. logic)
These are the types of values that are experienced. By objectifying them we
can see an evolutionary hierarchy at work.
In addition there is dynamic Quality towards which values evolve. It is
also the ground of experience that creates and sustains all patterns of
value.
Thanks,
Steve
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