Quoting Krimel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > [Platt] > > Pirsig explains what this means: "Because of his different metaphysical > > orientation Phaedrus saw instantly that those seemingly trivial, > > unimportant, "spur of the moment" decisions that Mayr was talking about, > > the decisions that directed the progress of evolution are, in fact. > > Dynamic Quality itself. Dynamic Quality, the source of all things, the > > pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality, always appears as "spur of the > > moment" Where else could it. appear?" (Lila, 11) > > > > [Krimel] > > Thanks for pointing this out it is exactly what I have been saying; DQ > > _is_ the "spur of the moment" chance event. And the summation of those > > chance events is the source of all thing, etc. > > [Platt] > Where do you see "chance event" in the passage? > > [Krimel] > Where do you find anything else in "... those seemingly trivial, > unimportant, 'spur of the moment' decisions..." these are the decisions that > Mayr was talking about. Earlier Pirsig summarized Mayr by saying: > > "Evolution is recklessly opportunistic: it favors any variation that > provides a competitive advantage over other members of an organism's own > population or over individuals of different species. For billions of years > this process has automatically fueled what we call evolutionary progress. No > program controlled or directed this progression. It was the result of spur > of the moment decisions of natural selection. > > Mayr certainly seemed to consider the matter settled and this attitude, no > doubt, reflected a consensus among everyone except anti-evolutionists." > > He then identifies this with DQ. Pirsig obviously wants a sugar coated > version of this but it doesn't fly and seriously mars the whole of Chapter > 11.
I consider Chapter 11 one of the most important in the literature of evolution. It answers the question Dawinian evolutionists can't -- Why survive? It also provides a explanation for the increase in versatility and freedom so evident in evolution, from amoeba to man. It fills in the knowledge gap left by appeals to "chance" which in effect means, "I don't know." In short, it picks up where science quits. ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/ 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/
