Ant McWatt quoted Pirsig from “The MOQ at Oxford” DVD:
“Well, if you read the Metaphysics of Quality, you know there are four levels
of evolution: the inorganic, the biological, the social, and the intellectual.
And Art is a mixture of all of those with Dynamic Quality if it's really Art -
I don't say it's completely Dynamic Quality. Finger painting by a two year old
is Dynamic. But it's a mixture of somebody who knows how to satisfy the Art
traditions of history but at the same time has a direction that he wants to go
on his own to some extent, so he's not a complete copy-cat and he's not a
complete wild-man - he's in between. And, the amount of Dynamic Quality should
not be overcome by intellectual quality, by these static patterns. At the same
time, the static patterns or the intellect - the Dynamic Quality should not
overcome your static patterns to a point where it's meaningless to a person who
writes."
dmb says:
This is clearly stated and it's easy to see that this balancing act describes
what we should be doing here in our posts. DQ should not overcome your static
patterns to the point where it's meaningless but it's no good to be a parrot
either. If it's too static, it's boring and unhelpful but if it's not static
enough nobody will know what you're saying. As a practical matter, this just
means that effective communication demands a certain stability of meaning, the
proper terms, comprehension of ideas and distinctions. Without static patterns,
every conversation will just degenerate into chaos and unintelligibility.
Without DQ, following static patterns isn't really even thinking. It's just
some kind of uncomprehending obedience or mindless conformity.
RMP:
"..In the past Phaedrus' own radical bias caused him to think of Dynamic
Quality alone and neglect static patterns of quality. Until now he had always
felt that these static patterns were dead. They have no love. They offer no
promise of anything. To succumb to them is to succumb to death, since that
which does not change cannot live. But now he was beginning to see that this
radical bias weakened his own case. Life can't exist on Dynamic Quality alone.
It has no staying power. To cling to Dynamic Quality alone apart from any
static patterns is to cling to chaos."
"Static quality patterns are dead when they are exclusive, when they demand
blind obedience and suppress Dynamic change. But static patterns, nevertheless,
provide a necessary stabilizing force to protect Dynamic progress from
degeneration. Although Dynamic Quality, the Quality of freedom, creates this
world in which we live, these patterns of static quality, the quality of order,
preserve our world. Neither static nor Dynamic Quality can survive without the
other."
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