Hi Andre --
Hi Ham, Quality does not relate the subject to the object, it creates them in the first place. 'The sun of Quality...does not revolve around the subjects and objects of our existence. It does not just passively illuminate them. It is not subordinate to them in any way. It has *created* them. They are subordinate to *it*.' (ZMM p234) To realise this one must step out of the SOM paradigm.
Thus saith Pirsig. I don't happen to agree. Unrealized Quality (Value) doesn't create anything. Realization requires a sensible agent without which there is no Quality or existence. Value sensibility is the essence of man, but his experience of it is relational -- as in "some things are better than others". It is man who differentiates Value experientially into the myriad things that constitute his universe. Thus, cognitive experience is the process whereby man "actualizes" being from Value to create an objective world. Like any process, experience and intellection are relational and fall within the SOM paradigm.
'At the moment of pure Quality, subject and object are identical'. (ZMM p 284)...only later are static PoV's deduced. To be aware of this event and this subsequent process one must step into a MoQ 'paradigm'.
"The moment of pure Quality" is a lovely phrase that obviously pleases the MoQers. Yet, no one has experienced such a phenomenon. All experience is differentiated and relational. Even self-awareness, once realized by the child, differentiates his individual identity from others. If Pirsig had posited Sensibility instead of "pure Quality" as primary to existence, he would have been half right. The other half of his fundamental "moment" is the value of beingness which is what we we are sensible OF. Together they differentiate subject and object to create a 'being-aware'.
As far as I can discern, the "MoQ paradigm" is a hierarchical system for categorizing certain constituents of existence. Since the only "metaphysical" component is the Quality (DQ) that lurks outside the system, I do not consider Pirsig's hieriarchy of levels a metaphysical hypothesis.
(For what my interpretation is worth). Thanks Andre, Ham 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/
