Re: MD Anthony asks What are Values?

From: David MOREY (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Sat Nov 08 2003 - 17:02:12 GMT

  • Next message: David MOREY: "Re: MD quality is ...?"

    I like to use 'nothing' because something emerging
    from nothing is what creativity is all about. Why I say DQ
    has to withdraw & allow SQ to emerge for there to be some-thing
    rather than no-thing is that otherwise nothing endures or has
    duration it would pop in and out of existence like a particle
    anti-particle pair.

    David M
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: <ant.mcwatt@ntlworld.com>
    To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
    Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 4:52 PM
    Subject: MD Anthony asks What are Values?

    Re: Anthony asks "What are Values?"

    Dear David M. and Ian,

    I was actually looking for suggestions to the question "What are values?"
    outside the Pirsigian paradigm.

    For instance, maybe one of the Rorty people have such a suggestion?

    Anyway, to address some specifics:

    David states:

    I would like to suggest that values are the reason SQ emerges from DQ. DQ is
    freedom and
    creativity and change and nothing.

    Anthony states:

    Correct to a point though the first line sounds like a tautology. Moreover,
    I don't think DQ is just nothing. Hence, as I note in Section 2.3.4 of my
    textbook, Pirsig (1996) avoids the Mahayana phrase "nothingness" as it can
    lead to this confusion.

    "The 'nothingness' of Buddhism has nothing to do with the 'nothingness' of
    physical space. That's one of the advantages in calling it 'Quality'
    instead of 'nothingness.' It reduces the confusion."

    David states:

    To move from nothing to something is to end change. This means that DQ has
    to
    repress its creativity, it has to allow repetition. Why should DQ
    do this?

    Anthony states:

    With the above quote of Pirsig's in mind, I'd scrap the above lines as they
    just confuse things and revise the rest of the paragraph accordingly though
    it is, more or less, on the right lines.

    (The rest of David's paragraph:

    DQ allows what it has created to re-occur or to repeat
    because it values it, it is worth doing again. SQ is the withdrawing
    of DQ or the sacrifice of transcendence to the Given and the Same.
    And this movement from the One to the Many leads to bondage
    and the loss of freedom. Material existence, and causality, is
    precisely the withdrawal of DQ. A rock has little DQ. However,
    life is the re-emergence of DQ. Conflict, of course, is therefore
    always a conflict of values. The value of being a rock versus
    the value of being a human head, unfortunately the rock has more
    SQ materialisty.)

    Ian states:

    I've very nearly finished Northrop, and find the idea reinforced over and
    over again, that fixing a working assumption as a stated value underlying
    some scientific theory or religious doctrine is always a transient state.
    Static, temporarily, for working purposes, but transient none-the-less in
    the grand dynamic scheme of things.

    Anthony states:

    This is probably what David was partially getting at but phrased in a better
    way.

    -----------------------------------------
    Email provided by http://www.ntlhome.com/

    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

    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 : Sat Nov 08 2003 - 17:19:48 GMT