Steve, you asked me some days ago:
"Maybe you could give an example of what you'd like to
categorize with the levels.?"
Gladly;gladly, because, quoting Ham to Bo:
"I have some problems understanding MoQ patterns
generally. So, forgive me if this sounds like a
criticism, as I'm only looking for clarification."
I have also problems understanding MOQ patterns.
The following case-story may serve as an example;
it's pretty simple and mundane but we could complicate
it later on by adding more stages.
<<< A group of men make their living by collecting and
selling honey. They have built and installed frame
hives in selected places and they go around and
collect the honey and the wax that bees gracefully
prepare for them. The men sell their product to a
factory of honey cakes (to be added later together
with the people that buys the cakes).
The bees, in turn, prepare those materials from
flowers of plants that grow in that region. The plants
gracefully prepare the nectar that bees collect and
store in the frame hives.
Said plants make nectar(among other things) out of
minerals and water in the soil, carbon dioxide from
the air and solar energy from the sun. The Sun, in
turn, "manufactures" energy by the fusion of hydrogen
and... let's leave it there for the time being.>>>
======
Steve said answering to Ham:
" It is intellect that takes undivided experience and
creates the pattern called "organism," but this is not
to say that there is not real experience prior to the
inference of this pattern. The MOQ does not even
object to the idea that objects have an independent
existence, it just points out that this is an idea,
and like any other idea should be taken only so far as
it is practical."
I find this promising good as an outline of a
methodology that may be useful for expressing the
above story in terms that fit the categories of the
MOQ levels: a) we accept the notion that objects may
have an independent existence(from us humans) b) each
'item' in the story may be considered as "undivided
experience" c)Intellect takes this undivided
experience and creates patterns out of it.
(I must admit that my point b)is a bit weak
because, in making-up the story I have already
systematized to some extent the undivided experience;
perhaps we could polish this up later).
Admitting a) and b) we proceed to assembly the
'items' into sets or groups. First one, the
beekeepers; these are 'honest' beekeepers (one can
easily add some artificial syrup and the chap at the
honey cake factory won't notice it); I mention this
only because, in asking why are they honest, we could
branch into Morality. They are partners; they all do
the dirty work and divide the profits equally between
themselves (socio-economic pattern?)Although the bees
might be working "for free", there are a lot of
expenses in such an operation; here is where "their
intellect" comes into the picture: this is a risky
business, you spread your beehives too wide and the
expenses in petrol and working hours could eat all
your profits, too close and you don't have enough
honey to go by. To run the outfit efficiently requires
intellectual prowess (intellectual pattern?).
Next we have the bees, organized in colonies centered
in each beehive. This organization or pattern(although
Pirsig may disagree) I take it as a clear example of
'social'. Not only that, but one is almost tempted to
add "their intellect"; a bee works on the basis of
'calculating' the ratio between the energy invested in
collecting a certain amount of nectar and the energy
output of that amount at the beehive (you may put
flowers outside the range thus calculated and bees
won't bother to get there).There are pretty good
mathematical models of their activities, but as to how
they 'calculate' no one has found yet. Although some
may disagree here about the social and the intelligent
part, all here will agree that this pattern is also
"biological".
Next we have the set of 'plants', which may be
divided in various subsets (trees, bushes,
wildflowers) each showing a different pattern of
behavior... but let's leave it at that for the time
being. The social aspect is here rather weak, so we'd
say this is 'biological'.
Let's jump to the question of which pattern
"controls' the whole operation: Pirsig proposes that
the higher level controls the lower one, that sounds
reasonable but, how do we know which is the higher?
On the one hand 'my intellect' made-up the story, the
patterns and the labels to be assigned to each but, on
the other hand, since we assume that all the objects
mentioned may have "an independent existence" from
said intellect we have to admit that the whole
operation runs --very well, thank you— without me and,
if any pattern is the controlling one, it is that of
the bees.
This last point is baffling and leaves me stuck
because the static quality of each pattern should be
the highest for the controlling pattern. To me
(although I am open to counter-arguments)the
highest-quality-pattern is the one of the bee's
behavior. In which case we'd have a pattern of the
biological(and/or social) level controlling the
pattern of the beekeepers. Ecology-fans may love this
but I assume that I'm getting quite far from MOQ. Any
suggestions?
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