Note: until we reached the level of understanding where sentience began to show us our responsibilities toward the Quality function we operated vis a vis Quality just as do the lower forms of life. Now that we are beginning to understand the consequences of our actions vis a vis the universe and the biosphere we can see that we represent another step up the ladder of Quality. Since all humans do not have the same level of understanding we have the operation of "many truths" to enable all of us to grow toward Quality. Pirsig says that since sentient individuals do not have the same level of understanding then each of us has his\her own level of Truth from which we judge the operation of Quality. P63 Logical positivists say that only the natural sciences can investigate the nature of reality. P63 Mystics - Mystics share a common belief that the fundamental nature of reality is outside language. That language splits things up into parts while the true nature of of reality is undivided. P64 Quality diesn't have to be defined. Quality is indivisible, undefinable, and unknowable is the sense that there is a knower and a known. A metaphysics must be divisible, definable, and knowable, or there isn't any metaphysics. Since a metaphysics is essentially a kind of dialectical definition and since Quality is essentially outside definition, this means that a Metaphysics of Quality is essentially a contradiction in terms, a logical absurdity. Positivism is a philosophy that emphasizes science as the only source of knowledge. it sharply distinguishes between fact and value and is hostile to religion and traditional metaphysics. It is an outgrowth of empiricism, the idea that all knowledge must come from experience. Philosophy, as far as positivism is concerned, is limited to the analysis of scientific language. But it doesn't matter. The MoQ not only passes the logical positivists tests for meaningfulness, it passes them with the highest marks. The MoQ restates the empirical basis of logical positivism with more precision, more inclusiveness, more explanatory power than it has previously had. It says that values are not outside of the experience that logical positivism limits itself to. They are the essence of this experience. Values are more empirical than subjects and objects. P66 P67The MoQ would take this separate category, Quality, and show how it contains within itself both subjects and objects. The MoQ would show how things become enormously more coherent when you start with an assulmption that Quality is the primary empirical reality of the world. P97 Because Quality is morality. Make no mistake about it. They're identical. And if Quality is the primary reality of the world then that means morality is also the primary reality of the world. The world is primarily a moral order. P 99 The test of truth are logical consistency, agreement with experience, and economy of explanation. P 99 The MoQ says that the values of art and morality and even religious mysticism are verifiable. P 99 If a thing has no value it isn't distinguished from anything else--a thing that has no value does not exist. The thing has not created the value, the value has created the thing. P99-100 Unlike SoM the MoQ does not insist on a single exclusive truth. If subjects and objects are held to be the ultimate reality then we are permitted only one construction of things, that which corresponds to the objective world. But if Quality or excellence is seen as the ultimate reality then it becomes possible for more than one set of truths to exist. Then one doesn't seek the absolute truth. one seeks instead the highest quality intellectual explanation of things with the knowledge that if the past is any guide to the future this explanation must be taken provisionally, as useful until something better comes along (MANY TRUTHS) CAUSATION- P103 In the MoQ causation of a metaphysical term that can be replaced by value. To say that A causes B or to say that B values Precondition A is to say the same thing. The term cause can be struck out completely from a scientfic description of the universe without any loss of accuracy or completeness. The word cause implies absolute certainty whereas the implied meaning of value is one of preference. P104 SUBSTANCE Substance is composed of stable inorganic patterns of value. Strike out the word substance and substitute stable inorganic patterns of value. Chap 9 108 thru 121. Division of static good and dynamic good . Story of the Brujo. The mythos, the culture in whjich we live. P139 Lila is composed of static patterns of value and these patterns are evolving toward a Dynamic Quality. All life is a migration of static patterns of quality toward dynamic quality. Lila Chap 10 P158 What the evolutionary structure of the MoQ shows is that there is not just one moral system. There are many............ P159 What is today conventionally called "morality" covers only one of these sets of moral codes, The social-biological code. (Humanity only) In a subject-object metaphysics this single social-biological code is considered to be a minor, "subjective,"physically non-existent part of the universe. But in the MoQ all these sets of morals, plus another, Dynamic Morality, are not only real, they are the whole thing. And as a matter of fact that looked like the answer to Rigel's question that had been bugging him all day: "Does Lila Have Quality?" Biologically she does, socially she doesn't. EVOLUTIONARY MORALITY just splits that whole question open like a watermelon. Since biological and social patterns have almost nothing to do with each other, Lila does and Lila does not have Quality at the same time............... How simple it was. Thats the mark of a high quality theory. It doesn't just answer the question in some complex round-about way. It dissolves the question, so you wonder why you ever asked it. P 409 Good is a noun. That was it. That was what Phaedrus had been looking for. That was the homer, over the fence, that ended the ball game. Good as a noun rather than as an adjective is all the MoQ is about. Of course, the ultimate Quality isn't a noun or an adjective, or anything else definable, but if you had to reduce the whole MoQ to a single sentence, that would be it. MOQ Online Homepage - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ Unsubscribe - http://www.moq.org/md/index.html MD Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
