Hoarse said to Platt:
Where did Pirsig say this? [that there might be a fifth level of Art] I believe
he talked about a code of art and this was in the context of relating Intellect
to DQ. If there is a level of art then it becomes static quality - something
that art is not - or shouldn't be anyway!
dmb says:
I think that's right. The fifth and final moral code speaks to the relation
between intellect and DQ.
"The MOQ says that science's empirical rejection of biological and social
values is not only rationally correct, it is also morally correct because the
intellectual patterns of science are of a higher evolutionary order than the
old biological and social patterns. But the MOQ also says that DQ - the
value-force that chooses an elegant mathematical solution to a laborious one,
or a brilliant experiment over a confusing, inconclusive one - is another
matter altogether. DQ is a higher moral order than static scientific truth, and
it is as immoral for philosophers of science to try to suppress DQ as it is for
church authorities to suppress scientific method. Dynamic value is an integral
part of science. It's the cutting edge of scientific progress itself."
I think this passage speaks to the specific nature of the code of art, but it
also speaks to the issue of anti-intellectualism and to Bo's equation. I mean,
this is what expanded rationality looks like, this is what non-SOM intellect is
all about. It puts the emphasis on excellence by putting the creative aspect of
science at the center of things rather than objectivity or certainty. That's
different from amoral, value-free science but it also very from
anti-intellectualism.
Pirsig identifies with James's radical empiricism on the previous page, by the
way, and in the paragraph that follows that passage Pirsig says the MOQ is a
form of Pragmatism. He's reiterating the moral codes in that context, which
strikes me as meaningful. The idea, I think, is that the moral codes add just
what James needs. They allow for a distinction between social practicality and
intellectual practicality that tightens up the pragmatic theory of truth. And
since Pirsig equates his central term with James's pure experience, it adds a
lot of rich detail that James never got around to.
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