"...In practice, this distinction [static and dynamic] refers to two facets of
any high-quality endeavour. Motorcycle maintenance and easel painting both
depend on the interaction of Static Patterns and Dynamic Quality. Pirsig made
an art out of motorcycle maintenance by first reading the manuals (with some
prior understanding of the principles on which they depend), then riding his
bike while alert to the unexpected sounds, or changes in engine performance,
that DQ might notice and diagnose. Similarly, nobody becomes an accomplished
painter, sculptor, writer, musician or architect without having recognized
excellence in previous examples of those arts, and taken that excellence as the
starting point for new work." -- (Patrick Doorly, The Truth About Art, p.129)
Ian said to Arlo:
Rather than working the definition of SOMism to death, I'm asking what does
MoQish expression and argument have, that distinguishes it from SOMist
expression and argument. What I do say is that objective, scientistic,
definitional logic does necessarily privilege well-defined subjects and objects
and well defined relations between these and is a feature of SOMist
intellectual expression and argument. Pragmatically, MoQish argumentation also
uses these, but it is MORE THAN these.
dmb says:
I think it's quite clear that there are all kinds of ways to describe
intellectual quality WITHOUT getting it mixed up with SOM. Even after rejecting
SOM for an expanded and improved form of rationality, an artful rationality,
Pirsig still lists the basic criteria by which intellectual quality is
evaluated. This includes things like elegance and not sloppiness, precision and
not vagueness, clarity and not confusion, definable terms and not made up or
arbitrary meanings, logical consistency and not incoherence or inconsistency,
economy of explanation and not verbose, rambling drivel, and one of my
favorites that could be discussed at great length, agreement with experience.
"The tests of truth are logical consistency, agreement with experience, and
economy of explanation. The Metaphysics of Quality satisfies these." (Lila,
chapter 8.)
"A metaphysics must be divisible, definable and knowable, or there isn't any
metaphysics." (Lila, page 64.)
"Definitions are the FOUNDATION of reason. You can't reason without them."
(ZAMM, page 214.)
" ...the MOQ also says that DQ - the value-force that chooses an elegant
mathematical solution to a laborious one, or a brilliant experiment over a
confusing, inconclusive one... Dynamic value is an integral part of science.
It is the cutting edge of scientific progress itself. ..." (Lila, chapter 29.)
In other words, DQ is the value-force that chooses coherent ideas over
incoherent ideas, that chooses logical consistency over contradiction. It's
what guides the selection of beautiful ideas over clumsy and clunky notions.
SOM is nothing like this. According to SOM, good and true ideas are the ones
that correspond to the one and only objective reality and our values are
considered a form of pollution. Science is supposed to value-free. In the MOQ,
intellect is not polluted by values but rather intellect IS a certain kind of
value, a species of the good. In the MOQ, intellect is centered around DQ and
subordinate to DQ but SOM totally fails to acknowledge the value of values in
our ways of thinking. That's the defect, the disease. Where Pirsig emphasizes
the role of DQ, as the source and substance of everything, as the generator of
all static patterns, SOM thinks that truth is only true when it's free of
values. That's the problem. Coherence, elegance, consistency and relevant
evidence is not the problem. Those are just a few of the names we give, that
Pirsig gives, to certain kinds of intellectual excellence.
"Value is the predecessor of structure. It’s the preintellectual awareness that
gives rise to it. Our structured reality is preselected on the basis of value,
and really to understand structured reality requires an understanding of the
value source from which it’s derived. One’s rational understanding of a
motorcycle is therefore modified from minute to minute as one works on it and
sees that a new and different rational understanding has more Quality. One
doesn’t cling to old sticky ideas because one has an immediate rational basis
for rejecting them. Reality isn’t static anymore. It’s not a set of ideas you
have to either fight or resign yourself to. It’s made up, in part, of ideas
that are expected to grow as you grow, and as we all grow, century after
century. With Quality as a central undefined term, reality is, in its essential
nature, not static but dynamic. And when you really understand dynamic reality
you never get stuck. It has forms but the forms are capable of change."
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