Andre:
'If preference and determinism are on the same continuum. this implies
that freedom is also on a continuum from little (or none) at the
inorganic static quality level (e.g. I have minimal or no control over
the strength of gravity in the universe; it is largely determined), to
some freedom at the biological (e.g. I must eat to survive but have
control of the nutrition ingested and of meal times), considerable
freedom at the social (e.g. choice of clothes, if any), nearly complete
choice at the intellectual (e.g. what I believe to be true) and to
complete freedom at the Dynamic 'Code of Art' level (where I place my
first brush stroke, if any, on the canvas)... . As such it's apparent
that this 'value' continuum (of freedom) stretches between largely
determined sub-atomic particles to complete artistic freedom. This is
important (metaphysically) as this continuum facilitates, in a largely
deterministic physical world, a notion of moral responsibility and
considerable intellectual freedom for an individual regarding aesthetic
decisions.
And Anthony quotes Pirsig on the same page:
'The MOQ puts an end to this ancient freewill vs. determinism
controversy by showing that both preference and probability are subsets
of value. As the distinction between subject and object becomes
relatively unimportant in the MOQ, so does the distinction between
probability and preference. There is no basic difference between mind
and matter with regard to free will, only a difference in degree of
freedom'(Pirsig, 1997c) In Anthony's PhD, p 137.
And if Quality means freedom, and freedom is what one is after then free
yourself from static patterns 'by putting them to sleep. That is, you
master them with such proficiency that they become an unconscious part
of your nature. You get so used to them you completely forget them and
they are gone. There in the center of the most monotonous boredom of
static ritualistic patterns the Dynamic freedom is found'(LILA, p 393)
'The physical order of the universe is also the moral order of the
universe. Rta is both (i.e. the 'cosmic order' and 'moral order).This
was exactly what the Metaphysics of Quality was claiming. It was not new
a idea. It was the oldest idea known to man.(LILA, p,390)
'Rta,'Hiriyama has written, 'almost ceased to be used in Sanskrit;
but...under the name of dharma the same idea occupies a very important
place in the later Indian views of life also'...'Dharma, like rta, means
'what holds together,'. It is the basis of all order. It equals
righteousness. It is the ethical code. It is the stable condition which
gives man perfect satisfaction'.
Dharma is duty. It is not external duty which is arbitrality imposed by
others. It is not any artificial set of conventions which can be amended
or repealed by legislation. Neither is it internal duty which is
arbitrality decided by one's own conscience. Dharma is beyond all
questions of what is internal and what is external. Dharma is Quality
itself, the principle of 'rightness'which gives structure and purpose to
the evolution of life and to the evolving understanding of the universe
which life has created'.(LILA,p 392)
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
