Mark said: The experience of Dynamic Quality is the same for everyone, it is only the experiences and objects which are mentally associated with the experience which are different. There is no difference in the liking when the liking is independent of the things liked. Dynamic Quality is universal. No-one says that his liking for beans is any different to someone else's liking for carrots independently of the beans and carrots involved.
Matt: No one says that their "liking" for beans is any different than someone else's "liking" for carrots, independently of the beans and carrots, because it would be an absurd thing to say. Who cares if "liking" and "valuing" is the same for everyone? That's the most trivial thing you could possibly say. If that's all the "universality of Dynamic Quality" amounts to, then it pretty much amounts to the fact that we all use the words "liking" and "valuing" and their synonyms in the same way. Because the only way we could know if we were all experiencing the same thing, yet independent of the experience itself (boy, that doesn't sound very Pirsigian, does it?), would be to say, "Hey, I like beans!" "Oh my god, I like carrots!" "Really? Hmm. Well, we both seem to enjoy these separate experiences in basically the same way. The lowest common denominator of our experiences must be 'liking.'" The point is that nothing much (let alone anything philosophically interesting) follows from the fact that we all "value," that we all experience some things as better than others. If we take Pirsig as simply forwarding that thesis, then we've severely hampered Pirsig's philosophical impact. If anything, Pirsig pointing out the obvious, innocuous fact that we all value some things over others is simply a softening up move to shake a few dunder heads out of their sleep. I stress "a few." The really interesting things happen after that in an argument that has to be a lot more subtle and complex than saying, "Hey, don't you like Guinness better than Bud Light? That's just like me liking Cezanne over Warhol!" Matt MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_focus/ MF Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from moq_focus follow the instructions at: http://www.moq.org/mf/subscribe.html
