[Marsha] What about your use of 'betterness'? It's a word you've used as an equivalent of 'value'. Doesn't this 'betterness' imply a comparative (subjective) value?
[Arlo] Again, this comparative state is experienced within the confines of the level in question. In the moment of direct experience, an amoeba experiences value (in the case of the acid, this is experience as a low-quality state). In that moment, I suppose you could say the amoeba becomes the "subject" and the low-quality environment the "object", but again this is not to suggest the "subjectiveness" of the amoeba is anything like the complex "subjectiveness" we conceptualize on the social and intellectual levels. In fact, I'd say the amoeba never experiences "subject/object". Having no symbolic representation of "self" or "other", the amoeba is "trapped" in primary, direct experience limited not only to inorganic-biological value, but to pretty unsophisticated biological value as well (a "wolf", for example, experiences a much more complex range of biological value). 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.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
