From: Wim Nusselder (wim.nusselder@antenna.nl)
Date: Thu Jun 12 2003 - 07:17:10 BST
Dear Steve,
You agreed 24 Apr 2003 16:18:35 -0400 with my summary of your awareness
hierarchy:
'Every entity is aware of the forces operating at the level below the level
whose laws it follows. An inorganic entity is unaware of inorganic forces,
so follows inorganic laws. A biological entity is aware of inorganic forces
(and tries to avoid regression to that level), but unaware of biological
forces, so follows biological laws. A social entity (hominids, maybe some
animals) is aware of inorganic and biological forces (and tries to avoid
regression to these levels), but unaware of social forces, so follows social
laws. An intellectual entity (a member of homo sapiens) is aware of
inorganic, biological and social forces, but unaware of intellectual forces,
so follows intellectual laws.'
You also agreed that we don't need this concept of 'awareness' and could
also write instead that entities behave morally at the highest level in
which they participate, i.e. at the level in the static pattterns of value
of which they are elements.
In answer to my question:
'At what level does this 'intellectually aware person' of yours follow
laws?'
you wrote:
'Perhaps, this level is the level on which one searches for the "ghost of
reason" as Phaedrus did in ZAMM. Would this be a "trans-rational" level?
Perhaps there are no static patterns to follow on this level, yet.
Do you see the MOQ as "trans-rational"?'
Unlike Bodvar Skutvik (who regrettably doesn't participate actively any more
in this list, I fear after getting to much criticism) I don't see the MoQ as
a static pattern of value on a 5th level. (Neither does Pirsig.) As long as
(those we brand as) SOM practitioners and MoQ practitioners can discuss with
each other about the relative merits of different metaphysics (or ways of
summarizing other narratives), they function on the same 4th level as
alternative 'rationales'.
I indeed don't think there is a 5th level of static patterns of value. Moral
behavior beyond the 4th level (freedom from 4th level patterns of value) is
therefore always temporary, dependent on momentary and erratic DQ
experiences.
With friendly greetings,
Wim
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 : Thu Jun 12 2003 - 07:17:40 BST