From: InfoPro Consulting: Mark Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Mon May 10 2004 - 03:52:54 BST
Hi Joe, et al, thanks for responding.
msh said
All of nature consists of four moral levels of SQ patterns or values,
with DQ mixing the pot at all levels. In order of decreasing
morality, along with representative patterns, these moral levels are:
joe said:
Writing a metaphysics is degenerate. LILA-5
msh says:
True enough, from the standpoint of the mystic. Reality, DQ, is
degraded the instant you try to define it. Like trapping a wriggling
bug in resin, the dynamic becomes static and impure. But I like
Pirsig's gumption when he says he's gonna write one anyway, because
it's interesting. Life is unavoidably impure. "Getting drunk and
picking up bar-ladies and writing metaphysics is a part of life."
joe quoted:
This high country passage through the Metaphysics of Quality allowed
entry to another valley of thought in which the facts of life get a
much richer interpretation. The valley spreads out into a huge
fertile plain of understanding.
In this plain of understanding static patterns of value are divided
into four systems: inorganic patterns, biological patterns, social
ppatterns and intellectual patterns LILA-12
joe said:
IMO this is an example of metaphysical degeneracy.
msh asks:
In a different sense than what I describe above? If so, can you
explain more of what you mean?
joe quoted:
So what Phaedrus was saying was that not just life, but everything,
is an ethical activity. It is nothing else. When inorganic paterns
of reality create life the Metaphysics of Quality postulates that
the've done so because it's 'better' and that this definition of
'betterness'--this beginning response to Dynamic Quality-- is an
elementary unit of ethics upon which all right and wrong can be
based. LILA-12
msh says:
I think this quote is crucial to an understanding of the MOQ. Still
it feels very weird to say that inorganic patterns created life. Non-
living things CREATED. Not only did they do something creative, they
had a REASON for it! I could use some help here.
joe said:
IMO this is Pirsig's definition of morality. 'Betterness' is a
mystical acceptance of the undefined.
msh asks:
This isn't derived from the LILA-12 passage you quoted above, is it?
If so, I don't see it. Sounds more like his "undefined" definition
of Quality from way back in ZMM. Yes?
joe said:
IMO the static formulation you have derived from reading LILA-13
could be prefaced by a note that 'moral' is a degenerate latching of
'betterness'. The static is always interpreted in terms of the
dynamic. The evolution of the hierarchy determines the morals.
msh says:
I think this will make an excellent preface.
Thanks again,
Mark Steven Heyman
-- InfoPro Consulting - The Professional Information Processors Custom Software Solutions for Windows, PDAs, and the Web Since 1983 Web Site: http://www.infoproconsulting.com "Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything." -- Henri Poincare' 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 May 10 2004 - 03:50:38 BST