Hi Ham, > [Ham} > I accidentally ran across an essay on Quality by John Beasley while looking > for something else under Metaphysics. The essay is dated 6/20/01 in the > Archives, so it predates my participation in the MD. I don't know Beasley's > standing with the MoQers, but this is an excellent piece of journalism that > expresses many of my own concerns about Quality as metaphysical reality.
I don't remember anything about Beasley, but what you quote from his essay suggests why I find him forgettable. He attacks the foundation of the MOQ -- Quality. As you report, Beasley wrote: > "The whole idea of a unified quality comes unstuck the moment we start to > look at quality from the perspective of the cell, or the organism, or the > person, rather than as some metaphysical 'noun'. As I have said before, > quality enters the physical universe with the coming of life. To talk of > pre-existing moral codes establishing the superiority of biological life > over inanimate nature is a form of theologising. Quality only makes sense > as seen from the perspective of the organism. Life brings value. It is > meaningless to assert value without life. Human life brings a magnificent > unfolding of quality, which emerges in intellect, as Pirsig correctly > asserts, but also in art and ethics and creativity, and none of these flower > without education, as we know from study of the wolf-boy, the individual > raised alone." > http://www.moq.org/forum/JohnBeasley/johnbeasley4.html Quality created the universe. Call it "theologising" if you wish, but that's just saying "I'm an atheist." Why would life suddenly "bring value?" What brought life in the first place? The MOQ provides an answer. As I recall, your Essence philosophy does, too. But apparently Beasley is of the school that thinks something comes from nothing by chance, the theory of Oops -- a barren theory if there ever was one. Sorry I can't provide my information about Beasley. Best regards, Platt 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/
