Dan, Ron, John, el al --
The question of Free Will has come up again, and the Q&A postings of the
last two days demonstrate the ambiguity of the MoQ on this seminal issue.
Not the least of the problem is an attempt to make "Quality" its major
factor. For example, on Tuesday John Carl asked Dan:
How can you have Quality if you have no choice?
Values are only meaningful when there is freedom to choose,
otherwise they don't equate to any kind of "value". If I can
choose between A and B, then I have to think about which
has more quality. But if I have no choice, if I just have A,
then I don't think about the quality of A at all. If somebody
believes there is no freedom in the universe, then they'd also
have to conclude that there is no quality either. I choose to
believe differently.
Dan responded:
We both have a choice and have no choice, at the same time.
That is what the MOQ is telling us. To cling to the notion that
only free will offers quality is to fundamentally misunderstand
the nature of experience, which is what I told Ham last time we spoke.
At 10:24 AM on Wednesday, Ron (X Acto) asked Dan:
"Free will" is natural selection. Isn't it?.
Dan's response:
Natural selection pertains to the biological level. There is no choice
involved. The fittest survive to pass on those survival traits while
the less fit hit an evolutionary dead end. At the biological level,
the environment seems to determine the fittest. For example, global
warming is threatening many species not able to adapt. No choice is
involved.
In an attempt to refute Ron's assertion that "Quality is what [RMP] meant
when he stated that atoms may be viewed as preferring their bonds, that
"free will" is exercised on the inorganic level as well," Dan provided what
is presumably a "definitive" quote (from LILA) on this issue:
"A third puzzle illuminated by the Metaphysics of Quality is the
ancient 'free will vs. determinism controversy.' Determinism is the
philosophic doctrine that man, like all other objects in the universe,
follows fixed scientific laws, and does so without ion. Free will is
the philosophic doctrine that man makes choices independent of the
atoms of his body.
"In the Metaphysics of Quality this dilemma doesn't come up. To
the extent that one's behavior is controlled by static patterns of quality
it is without choice. But to the extent that one follows Dynamic
Quality, which is undefinable, one's behavior is free.
"So what Phaedrus was saying was that not just life, but everything,
is an ethical activity. It is nothing else. When inorganic patterns of
reality create life the Metaphysics of Quality postulates that they've
done so because it's "better" and that this definition of "betterness"
-this beginning response to Dynamic Quality-is an elementary unit of
ethics upon which all right and wrong can be based."
Before I comment further, can any one tell me what "ion" in the first
paragraph is supposed to mean? (I know ions as charged particles, but that
makes no sense in this context.) Also, what was Pirsig inferring when he
called Free Will the "philosophic doctrine that man makes choices
independent of the atoms of his body"? How do ions and atoms factor in free
decision-making?
My interpretation of this statement is that Free Will is an outmoded and
unnecessary concept inasmuch as "everything is an ethical activity"
automatically responding to "betterness". The author allows for "free
behavior" only in the sense that it follows an undefinable goal called DQ.
I don't see how that differs from the laws of Nature, nor do I understand
how being constrained to a predetermined goal can be construed as exercising
Free Will.
Frankly, the rationale of these three paragraphs seems to argue that we
would be better off not having a mind of our own. In that way, the universe
could proceed in its prescribed course toward betterness without human
interference.
If this is the best example of MoQ's guidance on morality and human freedom,
it leaves much to be desired as a life philosophy.
But, of course, that's only one man's opinion.
Essentially speaking,
Ham
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