dmb said to Steve:
.. You've construed the MOQ's self as separate from DQ.
Steve replied:
There is no mistake. ... that is how Pirsig explains the self on several
occasions.* For example, in LC he says, "The MOQ, as I understand it, denies
any existence of a “self” that is independent of inorganic, biological, social
or intellectual patterns. There is no “self” that contains these patterns.
These patterns contain the self." You see? "You," the static self, is contained
within the patterns and is indeed distinct from DQ. *See also this LC
annotation: "The MOQ says it is a collection of static patterns capable of
apprehending Dynamic Quality." Again, we see Pirsig defining the self as a
collection of patterns. That is what I referring to.
dmb says:
The evidence does not support your claim, Steve. You are putting DQ outside the
self and identifying the MOQ's self exclusively with static patterns. You are
leaving out the most crucial part, wherein static patterns are "capable of
apprehending Dynamic Quality". Your claim is contradicted the textual evidence
you selected. And there is plenty more that have already been presented to you
repeatedly. As you can see in the following quotes, the capacity to respond to
DQ is quite central to the MOQ's conception of the self. In fact, Pirsig says
that Lila is engaged in an evolutionary battle AGAINST the static patterns of
her own life. He says ALL LIFE is a migration of static patterns toward DQ,
that she and you and me and everything is involved in this evolutionary
process. The self is a process, not a thing or simply layers of things. In
fact, the code of art represent the height of morality precisely because it
properly acknowledges the centrality of DQ in the way we act and live.
"If you compare the levels of static patterns that compose a human being to the
ecology of a forest, and if you see the different patterns sometimes in
competition with each other, sometimes in symbiotic support of each other, but
always in a kind of tension that will shift one way or the other, depending on
evolving circumstances, then you can also see that evolution doesn't take place
only within societies, it takes place within individuals too. It's possible to
see Lila as something much greater than a customary sociological or
anthropological description would have her be. Lila then becomes a complex
ecology of patterns moving toward Dynamic Quality. Lila individually, herself,
is in an evolutionary battle against the static patterns of her own life."
(Lila 360)
"Lila is composed of static patterns of value and these patterns are evolving
toward a Dynamic Quality. ...She's on her way somewhere like everybody else.
And you can't say where that somewhere is. ...'All life is a migration of
static patterns of quality toward Dynamic Quality." (Lila 139)
"...Phaedrus saw instantly that those seemingly trivial, unimportant, 'spur of
the moment' decisions that Mayr was talking about, the decisions that directed
the progress of evolution are, in fact, Dynamic Quality itself. Dynamic
Quality, the source of all things, the pre-intellectual cutting edge of
reality, always appears as 'spur of the moment'. Where else could it appear?".
(Lila 143)
"Without DQ the organism cannot grow. Without static quality the organism
cannot last. Both are needed." (Lila 147)
"But sometimes it's Dynamic, where your whole being senses that the static
situation is an enemy of life itself. That's what drives the really creative
people - the artists, composers, revolutionaries and the like - the feeling
that if they don't break out of this jailhouse somebody has built around them,
they're going to die. But they're not being contrary in a way that is just
decadent. They're way too energetic and aggressive to be decadent. They're
fighting for some kind of Dynamic freedom from the static patterns. But the
freedom they're fighting for is a kind of morality too. And it's a highly
important part of the overall moral process. ..Without its continual
refreshment static patterns would simply die of old age." (Lila 359)
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