Marsha --
Both the designs and the designer are conceptually constructed.
Both are patterns. I don't see a problem with the MOQ.
To see the problem you have to go back to the fundamentals.
Remember the 'ex nihilo' principle? You say the designs and the designer
are "conceptually constructed". "Conceptually" is an adverb that describes
conception as the configuring process of the intellect. Anything
constructed is a "creation", and creation implies a Creator.
I assume you agree that objects are intellectual patterns, If so, they are
constructed FROM value, not BY value. Since construction is not an agent
but a process, who or what is the constructive agent? As an MoQist, you
will probably answer that Intellect is the agent. And that's precisely
where the problem lies. For "intellect" is not a disembodied agency and
"value" is not a universal principle. Both are functions of the individual
observer. In the absence of an observer, there is no value realized and no
intellect to configure it.
Back on July 7 you told me that "self is a collection of interrelated,
ever-changing,
static patterns of inorganic, biological, social and intellectual values."
By that definition the self is a construction of its objective experiences.
Maybe that's literally how you view it. In any event, it's how Pirsig would
like you to view it, since he seeks to "overcome" selfness in the monistic
existentiality of DQ.
Here's where I part with the Quality thesis. Individuality and separateness
are essential to value realization. All experience is proprietary to the
self, selves are individuated from each other, and experiential existence is
a differentiated system.
I'm quite aware that this is regarded as an unenlightened SOMist view. But
it is the reality human beings are designed to experience and participate
in. Why? Because (metaphysically) it is the only way value can be realized
relationally, and (morally) it affords the individual free choice, which is
the purpose of being-aware in a relational universe.
But I don't stop here. Unlike Pirsig, I don't exclude metaphysical reality
from this differentiated ontology. I posit Essence as the "unmoved mover"
and primary source of all difference, and nothingness as the actualizing
agent of existence. You and I are negated "others" of an absolute reality
whose essential value absorbs us into its oneness. Take hold of this value,
Marsha. Seize the Essence! It's all up for grabs in this process we call
the life-experience.
Essentially yours,
Ham
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