Hi Mary, On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 10:40 AM, Mary <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Steve, > > Yes, Pirsig certainly did say that, but that is not the important thing > about the levels. He also says this further along in the same quote. > [quote] > In a value-centered Metaphysics of Quality the four sets of static patterns > are not isolated into separate compartments of mind and matter. Matter is > just a name for certain inorganic value patterns. Biological patterns, > social patterns, and intellectual patterns are supported by this pattern of > matter but are independent of it. They have rules and laws of their own > that are not derivable from the rules or laws of substance. This is not the > customary way of thinking, but, when you stop to think about it you wonder > how you ever got conned into thinking otherwise. What, after all, is the > likelihood that an atom possesses within its own structure enough > information to build the city of New York?
Steve: I don't see any support in the above for your claim that a new type of pattern of value only becomes a new level when we can start to recognize new purposes that were not previously recognizable. Mary: > If you are trying to tell me that the 4 Levels are nothing more than > groupings of similar things, then the power of the MoQ is diluted. The > levels start to take on an arbitrariness that defeats the whole concept of > Levels. Might as well introduce a taxonomic classification system. Steve: The levels ARE groupings of similar things, but not "nothing more than." They are part of an evolutionary hierarchy of value patterns. Mary: They > are not called "Static Patterns of VALUE" for nothing. What is valued by > one level is not valued by another, and that is what makes the levels differ > from each other. Steve: This is a Bo-ism and not Pirsig's MOQ. You are assigning agency to the levels. The levels themselves don't value. The levels are labels for collections of patterns of valuation. Best, Steve 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
