Quoting Arlo Bensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > [Platt] > It fills in the knowledge gap left by appeals to "chance" which in > effect means, "I don't know." > > [Arlo] > "Chance" has nothing to do with "I don't know". Chance means without > pre-planning, pre-ordainment or the active ordering of an > "intelligent designer". "Chance" says that when the first two > subatomic patterns united there was no pre-conceived "plan" or > "purpose", they did so following only an undefined and unplanned > "betterness". It was only AFTER the fact when the moment of "AHA!" > hits, that these patterns become "stable". > > Despite the desire to turn Quality into Quali-god, an "intelligent > designer" who ordered the universe specifically to bring Man, > Glorious Man into being, and then sits back and revels in the > splendor of Man's Free Will and Independence, it just ain't so. > "Quality" is not a consciousness that gives on whit about whether or > not "man" ever existed. The chance event(s) that ended the millions > of years of dino rule was not part of a "Divine Plan of Quali-god" to > turn dinos into oil and bring about the Reign of Man. For millions of > years biological patterns followed Quality and all was Good. Chance > shakes things up, and after the subsequent "AHA'S!" maybe something > new will appear, or maybe not. > > Chance says there is not a "let's make a man", but rather an after > the fact "wow! this works! let's keep it!". And should a passing > asteroid smash into the Earth and end the Reign of Man, it will > happen not out of Divine Plan nor will "Quality" care. Whatever > patterns survive will continue to respond to "betterness", and maybe > something new will appear, or maybe not. There is no plan, only after > the fact patterns.
How do you know there's no plan? As far as Pirsig is concerned, there may be a plan. "There is no quarrel whatsoever between the Metaphysics of Quality and the Darwinian Theory of Evolution. Neither is there a quarrel between the Metaphysics of Quality and the "teleological" theories which insist that life has some purpose. What the Metaphysics of Quality has done is unite these opposed doctrines within a larger metaphysical structure that accommodates both of them without contradiction." (Lila, 11) ------------------------------------------------- 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/
