> [Case] > Or to those who attempt to spin the notion of moral orders to mean that > electrons and moons are Kantian's spinning in space because it is their > duty to do so or because they "ought" to behave this way. The Moon is > indeed made up of static patterns of value but the values are orbital > velocity, mass, distance from the earth...
[Platt] I interpret Pirsig's inorganic value patterns as ethical, not numerical. "So what Phaedrus was saying was that not just life, but everything, is an ETHICAL activity. It is nothing else. When inorganic patterns of reality create life the Metaphysics of Quality postulates that they've done so because it's "better" and that this definition of "betterness"-this beginning response to Dynamic Quality- s an elementary unit of ethics upon which all right and wrong can be based. "When this understanding first broke through in Phaedrus's mind, that ethics and science had suddenly been integrated into a single system, he became so manic he couldn't think of anything else for days. The only time he had been more manic about an abstract idea was when he had first hit upon the idea of undefined Quality itself." (Lila, 12--emphasis added). I would be interested in other views on this interpretation. [Case] We have been through this several times, you and I and as I have said before I think by the time Pirsig gets to this point he has redefined ethics in such a way that it no longer means what you are claiming it means. In this sense 1+1=2 is an ethical statement. I think this usage is a pretty bad idea since now ethics can mean whatever you want it to mean. Your use of these passages confirms why I think this simply leads to fuzzy thinking. I have frequently objected to Pirsig's use of betterness and teleology and there is not point in repeating this. But I too am interested in what others have to say. 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/
