> Hi Jorge,
> Excuse my ignorance but, is there anyone that > contends that "the lines between levels" are not fuzzy > boundaries? > Steve: Pirsig described the levels as discrete. I don't think the boundaries are fuzzy but it may be that I don't know enough about science to see if there is a fuzzy boundary between inorganic materials and living things. It can be very hard to see where instinct ends and socially learned behavior begins, but I use the MOQ assumption that there is a categorical difference between the two. I think social and intellectual patterns are also categorically different as a socially maintained behavior pattern is categorically different from a rationale for that behavior. Here is a quote from Pirsig where he says that the levels are discrete rather than fuzzy categories on a continuum: "In this plain of understanding static patterns of value are divided into four systems: inorganic patterns, biological patterns, social patterns and intellectual patterns. They are exhaustive. That's all there are. If you construct an encyclopedia of four topics-Inorganic, Biological, Social and Intellectual-nothing is left out. No "thing," that is. Only Dynamic Quality, which cannot be described in any encyclopedia, is absent. But although the four systems are exhaustive they are not exclusive. They all operate at the same time and in ways that are almost independent of each other. This classification of patterns is not very original, but the Metaphysics of Quality allows an assertion about them that is unusual. It says they are not continuous. They are discrete. They have very little to do with one another. Although each higher level is built on a lower one it is not an extension of that lower level. Quite the contrary. The higher level can often be seen to be in opposition to the lower level, dominating it, controlling it where possible for its own purposes. This observation is impossible in a substance-dominated metaphysics where everything has to be an extension of matter. But now atoms and molecules are just one of four levels of static patterns of quality and there is no intellectual requirement that any level dominate the other three." Regards, Steve 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/
