Platt --
[Ham, previously]:
Unrealized value is a malapropism. Without sensible awareness
there can be no consciousness and no realization.
Which for "theists" like ourselves suggests a reason for the
agency of individuated selfness.
Do you agree?
[Platt]:
Well, yes and no. I think there's a reason for being self-aware,
namely that being so is better than not being so. But, of course,
I can't prove it. :-)
You "think" that being is better than not being? I don't believe for a
moment that this flippancy about your existence is sincere. Can there be
any doubt that your survival as a human being is the biological, social, and
intellectual purpose of Platt Holden?
Ron has initiated another debate (Core problemS) about whether the levels
are discrete or continuous, from which I shall recuse myself because they're
meaningless. Value, on the other hand, is self-evident, as Pirsig himself
made quite clear. This is not an 'apples and pears' comparison or an
aesthetic judgment call. It's a given. There is no value greater or more
vital to the individual than his own existence. Every decision and action
that you perform in life is to preserve, sustain and enrich your being in
the world. Even if you were unconscious, your biological functions would
continue working toward that purpose.
When I started describing Essentialism on this forum, I assumed that the
value of being-aware was a universal, self-evident principle. Instead it
seems to be the most difficult concept I've had to get across here. Whether
it's the levels hierarchy, the notion of a moral universe, or Pirsig's
overcoming of duality, the MoQists by their own description are selfless
automatons produced and controlled by biological, social and intellectual
forces whose only purpose is to move an insensible universe toward its own
inevitable betterness. I suppose we should be thankful for this fleeting
taste of cosmic value.
This is worse than postmodern nihilism. This is living in a state of total
self-denial.
IMHO, of course.
Regards,
Ham
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