Hi Platt --
Seems to me, Ham, that your assertion of an absolute qualifies as "arbitrarily chosen as the leitmotif of [your] thesis." Seems to me your "Essence" also qualifies as a "primary source beyond description," your own "non-theistic God." But don't you think we've about exhausted our efforts in trying to convince one another of our respective positions? We both seem to have reached the stance of, "That's my story and I'm sticking to it."
Yes, I suspect we are intractable in our respective worldviews. And, once again, I've come to the conclusion that my participation here is not contributing to the advancement of either philosophy. But before we close this dialogue, I want to make one more comparison which will address your comments from a metaphysical standpoint.
Essence is, of course, the foundation of Essentialism. In that sense, it does replace 'God' as the ineffable primary source of creation. Unlike the arbitrary choice of 'Quality', however, Essence is consistent with the logic of 'ex nihilo nihil est' (nothing comes from nothingness) as the uncreated source. It does not depend on human perception (e.g, experience or intellect) for validation but is self-fulfilling, transcendent, and independent of space/time differentiation.
Quality is not "independent of and prior to everything else, including experience." It is experience, or if you prefer, "contiguous with it." If you must search for a "first cause" (which only leads to infinite regress) consider it to be experience, or as some prefer, "consciousness.".
If Quality is not independent but equates to:experience, it is not the primary source. I think Pirsig is ambiguous about this. He claims that "the first division of Quality - the first slice of undivided experience - is into subjects and objects," but he does not directly posit Quality as the primary source. We are left to infer that connotation from his description of objects as "patterns of Quality".
Personally, I think the author's cause would have been better served had he avoided the term "metaphysics" altogether, as it's a continuing source of confusion in interpreting his philosophy. As a euphemistic portrait of the experiential world, the MoQ fills a particular niche in postmodern literature. Although it demeans the integrity of the individual as a free agent, the Quality hierarchy has obvious appeal to academia and the New Age community. It offers a "feel good" perspective of existence that elevates Value above the mundane, and the quasi-fictional novel approach has attracted the lay audience as well. If nothing else, I'm indebted to RMP for his insightful analysis of Value in a socio-historical context.
Unless you have something to add, that's my last word on the subject, Platt. Thanks for another pleasantly stimulating exchange.
Best wishes, 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/md/archives.html
