Hello Ham,
The Quality/DQ level is unquestionably Moral, but few dwell at the DQ level for long. At the static level, morality is too often mistakenly connected with causality, which like time and space are illusions. At the static level, morality becomes a static judgement based on the particular/s when really the particular comes and goes and is in no sense "real". Does that work for you? Marsha -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ham Priday Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 2:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MD] The Quality of Freedom John, Joe, Mark and All -- I wasn't able to locate the post in which Joe insisted that man couldn't be moral unless morality were an intrinsic law of the universe, like gravity, imposed on him. But when I tried to make the point that man "invents" morality, rather than the other way around, John jumped in to take issue with me: [John, on 12/1]: > But that point is the point with which I disagree. It makes more sense > that the moral structure of the cosmos produces man, who retains > recognition in his being of this intrinsic morality. ... > > The distinction is between morality and freedom. You say you couldn't > have freedom if there was intrinsic morality and I say you couldn't have > freedom UNLESS there was intrinsic morality. There is a gross misunderstanding of Freedom here, and it stems from Pirsig's theory of "universal" Quality (DQ) that would deny existence a cognitive value agent. In my opinion, this distorts not only the concept of human freedom but the Quality (Value) sensibility that supports it. Such a worldview essentially eliminates the moral autonomy of man whose role as choice-maker is the very core of morality. And the blame for this prevarication falls squarely on the shoulders of MoQ's author. Since the Freedom issue is central to philosophy in general, yet conspicuous by its absence in the MoQ specifically, I decided it warranted a thread of its own. In 'The Discovery of Freedom', published over half a century ago, Rose Wilder Lane writes: "Very few men have ever known that men are free. Among this earth's population now, few know that fact. For six thousand years at least, a majority has generally believed in pagan gods. ... The pagan view of the universe is that it is static, motionless, limited, and controlled by an Authority ...that all individuals are, and by their nature should and must be, controlled by some Authority outside themselves. ...[But] a time comes when every normal man is a responsible human being. His energy creates a part of the whole human world of his time. He is free; he is self-controlling and responsible, because he generates his energy and controls it. No one and nothing else can control it." The MoQ thesis does not endorse this view. Instead it promulgates the notion that man evolves through biological and social levels in order to "intellectualize" goodness as something in Nature to which he must "attach" himself. But if this were true, the virtues of mankind -- compassion, generosity, honesty, honor -- would have to be culled or extracted from the universal "DQ bank". Pirsigians look upon these values as "behavior patterns" observed in enlightened people and advanced societies, rather than responses to proprietary sensibility. I have repeatedly argued that if the universe were intrinsically moral, the issue of Morality would never even arise. All living creatures would automatically behave as programmed by Nature's Goodness. But the universe is patently not moral, as the "law of the jungle" demonstrates, and no amount of intellect is going to moralize evolution. That's because morality doesn't come from the universe. Only human beings have the value sensibility to establish a moral code and the reasoning ability to live by it. If we could view the universe as "intelligently designed" (which doesn't require theism), we would see that man is individuated from the objective world of his experience so that he may independently assess its value, thereby gaining an "external perspective" of the primary source "unbiased" by absolute knowledge. This perspective "colors" the being of existence to reflect the individual's sensibilities as well as the aspirations of his culture. And, precisely because he is not a robot of Nature programmed to follow a prescribed course, he is free to exercise decisions that adapt the world to his social, biological and intellectual needs and ideals. That man is the choicemaker of his universe is demonstrated by the history of human civilization -- particularly the tremendous increases in life-expectancy, productivity, and practical knowledge, and the accelerated advances in communication, transportation, industry and commerce achieved over just the last two centuries. Human Freedom is not simply a noble aphorism invented by moralists and legislators. The "unalienable rights" sanctioned by America's Founders alludes to a cosmic principle that applies even to individuals living in servitude. Far more than a social right or a political entitlement, Freedom is the scenario needed for the full appreciation of Value. It forces us to weigh and choose personal values in the context of an indeterminate reality, while at the same time affording us a singular opportunity to "make a difference" in our own life-experience and, by example, in the community of mankind at large. In summary, I maintain that it is a moral travesty to dismiss or reject the discriminative and rational faculties with which human beings are uniquely endowed. To do so demeans our species and slights the individual's role as the agent of experiential value. Essentially speaking, 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/ 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/
