Marsha: In the MoQ, causation is replaced by preference, but it is still a pattern or an explanatory extension of a pattern.
On May 8, 2011, at 10:52 AM, david buchanan wrote: > > Steve said to Dan: > Since the Cartesian self is denied, the free will is denied since there is no > autonomous agent to posses the faculty known as free will. > > dmb says: > I'm not so sure it follows. Does the denial of the Cartesian self also entail > the denial of agency? It seems to me that freedom and the self are > re-concieved, not eliminated altogether. > > > Dan said: > Note that he says the term "cause" can be completely done away with when we > are describing reality, which seems to infer that the notion of causation can > also be done away with in the framework of the MOQ, without any loss. He > [Pirsig] goes on to say: "The only difference between causation and value is > that the word "cause" implies absolute certainty whereas the implied meaning > of "value" is one of preference." [LILA] > > dmb says: > That's just it. When we get rid of causality and replace it with preference > we are getting rid of mechanical laws and replacing them with agency. If > subatomic particles and iron filings can express preferences, and if > biological evolution proceeds on the basis of "spur of the moment decisions", > then the expression of social and intellectual level preferences also > involves some kind of agency. This kind of agency is not conceived as the > rational decision-making of the will, a transcendental self or ego > consciousness because these preferences go all the way down. The implication > is that we've traded a mechanistic, unconscious cosmos for one that is alive > and aware in every little corner. Nothing is inert or dead or automatic, > which means nothing is determined and everything is mutable to some degree. > > > > 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 ___ 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
