Greetings, Platt --
Hey Steve, Bruce
Bruce's example is an empirical fact established by observation and
experiment. But, where is the evidence that values are involved?
How do we convince doubters that the germ-immunity conflict is a
moral struggle? I mean it's easy to say that all battles are moral
battles.
But, how do you prove it in court?
I'm beginning to suspect that Pirsig's theory is like evolution,
climate change and God's will because no matter what happens
the theory applies. ...
I wonder.
So do I, Platt.
Unfortunately, Pirsig's theory IS evolution. It's the evolution of
"universal betterness" with or without man's participation. Evolution
toward complexity, as in the development of "higher-order" species, has been
the objectivists' theory ever since Darwin. It is disturbing to see it
applied to morality by a philosopher.
For one thing, there is no empirical evidence that organic complexity is any
more "moral" than low-order simplicity. Has intellectual development in
Homo-sapiens made us moral creatures? Bruce also said "anything that is
organized into patterns did that out of Dynamic Quality and is Quality
itself," but this prompted him to ask "what is it that moves things from a
state of organization back to chaos? Is that Quality?" He bases his
ontology on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that the usable
energy in the universe diminishes over time and that the most probable state
for any natural system in one of disorder. Some scientists believe this
refutes the theory of biological evolution. Here's one:
"Of all the statements that have been made with respect to theories on the
origin of life, the statement that the Second Law of Thermodynamics poses no
problem for an evolutionary origin of life is the most absurd. The operation
of natural processes on which the Second Law of Thermodynamics is based is
alone sufficient, therefore, to preclude the spontaneous evolutionary origin
of the immense biological order required for the origin of life." -- [Duane
Gish, Ph.D. in biochemistry, UCLA]
But the most grievous aspect of Pirsig's evolutionary thesis is that it
ignores the cognizant subject of quality and morality, without whose
sensibility value would be meaningless, as would any effort to improve man's
well-being. It makes no sense to talk about Quality or Value as a level we
"attach to" when we all feel it as that which is immanently desirable,
inspirational, something to aspire to. What do you suppose would happen to
the Beauty you revere so much if there were no human beings to appreciate
it? If man's motives and behavior play no part in the creation process,
human existence has less meaning than a spring-driven cuckoo clock.
I sense that you're beginning to get my drift, Platt. Perhaps my
anthropocentric universe no longer seems so strange to you.
Essentially yours,
Ham
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