Hello everyone I've been away working in the dirt and despite other intentions thinking quite a bit. Reading over them, these thoughts seem a bit jumbled but I want to try and get them down while they seem fresh in my mind. Please forgive any inconsistencies; this is a very rough draft.
Khoo, in a recent post, mentions the potential value of marrying East and West when it comes to philosophy. I agree; so let's in an effort to clarify both the MOQ and the Book of Changes compare both documents: The language of the Book of Changes (BOC) is a method of differentiation, as is the language of the MOQ. Any method of differentiation can be seen as a process where the point is to define a particular "something" amongst many. This process acts to zoom in on a "something," to isolate it, and zoom in further to acquire details where the details themselves become "somethings." This process reflects the use of recursion, where, as the process concentrates focus on a something, it differentiates within the previously differentiated and so on, and from there identifies the contents of that something until all elements, all parts, of the something have been clearly defined and in doing so has that something, as a whole, been identified. "In this plain of understanding static patterns of value are divided into four systems: inorganic patterns, biological patterns, social patterns and intellectual patterns. They are exhaustive. That's all there are. If you construct an encyclopedia of four topics-Inorganic, Biological, Social and Intellectual-nothing is left out. No "thing," that is. Only Dynamic Quality, which cannot be described in any encyclopedia, is absent." [LILA] The MOQ states that reality can be sorted into four evolutionary levels. That's all there is. The BOC, on the other hand, uses 64 hexagrams to describe reality. Since we cannot possibly map "all there is" in a 1:1 format, the BOC as well as the MOQ must predominately use analogy and metaphor to describe "all there is." The MOQ is a map that describes the territory. It is not the territory itself. How could it be? Reality shifts and changes constantly. As soon as we nail it down, poof, it is gone. Looking to the four levels of the MOQ, it seems that as we move from the lower levels to the upper we move from the general to the particular. Just as every biological pattern of value is also an inorganic pattern but not all inorganic patterns are biological, every social pattern is an intellectual pattern but not all intellectual patterns are social. The hallmark of intellect is discrimination. This discrimination applies to the hexagrams in the BOC as well. Starting at the baseline, all four levels of the MOQ can be seen within each hexagram. Each hexagram of the BOC can be seen as complete in itself yet in the language of the BOC, each hexagram is entangled within the context of all other hexagrams. In the language of the MOQ, each level is entangled within the context of all other levels to make up the whole. Each level will contribute an expressiveness to any other level. And that expressiveness is only describable by analogy to the characteristics of some other level. Since, like the BOC, the MOQ is supposed to contain "all there is" it should be able to include itself. I'd like to take some time and explore how it does that, as well as how we can define a level through the association of all other levels. "This classification of patterns is not very original, but the Metaphysics of Quality allows an assertion about them that is unusual. It says they are not continuous. They are discrete. They have very little to do with one another. Although each higher level is built on a lower one it is not an extension of that lower level. Quite the contrary. The higher level can often be seen to be in opposition to the lower level, dominating it, controlling it where possible for its own purposes." [LILA] In the language of the MOQ, each successive level can be seen as in opposition to the lower. This gives us two semantic poles to a level's definition. This duality of opposition runs within each level as well as in between each level. For example, starting with the inorganic level as a base line, we transition into biological patterns of value that take inorganic patterns and usurp them to their own purposes. Transitioning to social patterns of value, we see how biological patterns are usurped and used by the Giant for its own purposes... we only have to think of the human resource department at any corporation. In addition, within the social level, religions have played a major role in in the advancement of science (which is nothing but the obliteration of the old ways) as well as in never-ending war and bigotry. And finally, intellectual patterns value freedom from any social constraints. But there's discord within the intellectual level too. For instance, subject/object metaphysics is seen as a high quality system of pattern of value. SOM proposes that reality is composed of subjects and objects. Period. But the MOQ opposes it in that SOM presupposes value lies in either the subject or the object, or both, since subjects and objects are all there is. The MOQ states that subjects and objects arise from Quality, not the other way around. In the MOQ, reality is composed of patterns of value rather than subjects and objects. "But although the four systems are exhaustive they are not exclusive. They all operate at the same time and in ways that are almost independent of each other." [LILA] Each level is a representation, or a set, of qualities. Each level represents a quality extracted from the duality of opposition. In one sense, we might look at the MOQ as an exponentiation reflecting the application of an opposing set of relationships within each level, with each level embedded within a context set by the previous. In building our understanding of reality in this manner, we move from the general to the particular. This is but half the story though, if we include a focus on going "down" once we reach the top of the MOQ hierarchy. Due to the manner in which the hexagrams of the BOC are formed, each is in fact made up of its own nature plus the input of all other levels. And in the MOQ, when we focus on any one level, what is reflected is the influence of context on the expression of some archetype through that context. In other words, we can consider each level like a hexagram, as having a spectrum made up of influences from all other levels, seen through the context of the level under consideration. It seems plausible to consider that this Dynamic differentiation is how the MOQ includes an expression of itself within itself, as does the BOC. A book contains itself, of course. "So what the Metaphysics of Quality concludes is that all schools are right on the mind-matter question. Mind is contained in static inorganic patterns. Matter is contained in static intellectual patterns. Both mind and matter are completely separate evolutionary levels of static patterns of value, and as such are capable of each containing the other without contradiction.' [LILA] Matter starts as an idea, a static intellectual pattern of value. An idea starts in the mind, a static inorganic pattern of value. These separate evolutionary levels define each other by their opposition. Looking to the BOC, each hexagram is constructed of bits of information encoded in lines representing complementary features of reality. Each hexagram is an idea that defines itself through the opposition of other hexagrams as well as the lines themselves. Tired now, Thanks for reading, Dan 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
