Hi Craig, Steve --
[Pirsig, via Steve]: > "So what the Metaphysics of Quality concludes is that all schools > are right on the mind-matter question. Mind is contained in static > inorganic patterns. Matter is contained in static intellectual > patterns." [Craig, previously]: > This has always seemed a slip of the tongue to me. > Does anyone else think so? You bet, Craig. Trying to assign patterns to existence only demonstrates the illogic of the whole levels paradigm. One might as well number every experience encountered, from birth to death, assigning greater value to the higher-numbered ones on the premise that experiences are more "intellectual" as we become wiser. It makes no sense as an epistemology, and it gets us no closer to comprehending reality. A "pattern", as Pirsig uses the term, is an intellectual construct, nothing more. Therefore, it serves no purpose to analyze experience "by the number" or existence "by the level". All awareness is differentiated by the intellect, whether the differences are considered patterned, numerical, polar, oppositional, incremental, or relational. That makes the experience of reality (existence) multiplistic in time and space. It is the intellect that classifies existence as inorganic, biological, social, mental, spacial and temporal. Intellect is the cognizant function of a human being, not a property or level intrinsic to objective reality. In the same way, anthropologists divide human history into Neolithic, Mesolithic, and Paleolithic periods. Geologists catalog natural history as Cretaceous, pre- and post-Jurassic periods, etc., while historians distinguish Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern ages. None of these divisions are innate in the evolutionary process. They are convenient intellectual distinctions arbitrarily made by scientists to relate certain events characteristic of a specific era to a system in transition. Evidently influenced by the categorical approach of Science, Pirsig has labeled the whole of reality "Dynamic", while applying "Static" to the system components, even though we experience them as dynamic. As I see it, this only confuses the issue. In logic (and metaphysics) difference begins with two. Experiential existence is actualized as a dichotomy of two exclusive but mutually dependent contingencies: Subjective (valuistic) Awareness and Objective Otherness. This dichotomy establishes a metaphysical basis for the experience of difference and the proprietary cognizance of a multiplistic world. We don't need to block out what we experience into so many levels and patterns, stages and periods, quanta and macro events, etc., in order to relate finitude to its absolute, undivided source. Despite our differences, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Regards, Ham Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
