From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun May 25 2003 - 15:23:57 BST
Hi Sam,
Assuming you'd like to have as many reactions to your essay on the
"Eudaimonic MoQ," I'd like to chime in.
I strongly agree with your conclusion that "the essence of the fourth
level is the existence of an autonomous individual." As you point out, In
order to question social values a "sense of self as something apart from
social roles" is necessary.
Where we part is in your assertion that individual autonomy "is not
primarily dependent upon reason, but upon emotional maturity." As examples
you point to music; excellence in sports, opera, ballet, art,
architecture; hosting an outstanding dinner party with close friends;
watching a beloved child win a prize at school. Then you make a central
switch by saying, "Once we take away the elements that are valued by the
biological and social levels . . ." as if these experiences you describe
demand MORE than biological and/or social level satisfactions. I maintain
they do not.
Other examples you present I equally attribute to predominance of
biological/social patterns including the writing of novels (but not
scientific papers), companionship in marriage, geographical exploration
(but not map making), political philosophy, religious teaching.
Likewise when you state, "But there are areas of of human flourishing--
most prominently art, music, poetry, friendship--which are not reducible
to either social level values or intellectual values" I cannot help but
think of the cave paintings in Lascaux done long before intellectual level
dominance, as well as the balladeers of the Middle Ages, the poets of
ancient Greece, and friendships going back to the beginning of homo
erectus.
To back up my case, I give you Pirsig's testimony::
"The MOQ sees emotions as a biological response to quality and not the
same thing as quality." (Lila's Child)
Since the autonomous individual pattern includes (and depends on)
inorganic, biological and social patterns I see no need to introduce more
than the logical, scientific outlook to round out the intellectual level.
After all, a scientist can throw an excellent dinner party, enjoy the
opera and love her husband as much as an old bio/social-driven copywriter
like me. :-)
Platt
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 : Sun May 25 2003 - 15:42:38 BST