Hettinger (hettingr@iglou.com)
Sun, 23 Nov 1997 03:49:48 +0100
Just posting my reaction here. And Bo, thanks for the (major) effort of
pulling things together here. Much more constructive than simply reacting
and bouncing off each other. (Although that's a lot of fun.)
Bodvar Skutvik wrote: <snip>
> 1. What is a metaphysics?
>
> A metaphysics is a theory that explains the fundamental nature and
> structure of reality.
>
yes
> 2. What is Quality?
>
> Quality is moral value. It may also be described as goodness or
> rightness. Quality may also be understood as experience, the pure
> direct experience of "now".
>
> (Quality may be understood as the pure, pre-everything experience.
> It may also be called value, goodness, rightness and morals.)
> ...................................................
>
yes
> 3. What is the Metaphysics of Quality?
>
> The Metaphysics of Quality is a theory that says that the
> fundamental nature of reality is that it is moral value (also called
> Quality, goodness, experience etc). This value is divided first into
> dynamic and static patterns of value. The static patterns are further
> divided into four levels of value -- inorganic, biological, social
> and intellectual.
>
yes
> (The Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) is an all-embracing theory whose
> first claim is that there is nothing but value. It goes on to say
> that in the dynamic ocean there have formed stable wave patterns
> called Static Value. It recognizes four such Static Value Patterns
> (also known as: Levels, dimensions, areas. planes or phases.). They
> are in rising order of good: Inorganic-Organic-Social and
> Intellectual
> .
Why "Organic"? Why not "biological"?
> ....................................................
>
> 4. What is dynamic quality?
Do we want capitals here? "Dynamic Quality?" Or not?
>
>
> Dynamic quality is the source of all things, the pre- intellectual
> cutting edge of reality. It is recognized as freedom, newness,
> beauty, change, wonder, the unexpected, any phenomenon that
> transcends the run of everyday experience.
>
> (Dynamic Quality is the fluidity-change component of existence.)
> ....................................................
>
> 5. What is static quality?
>
> Static quality is what gives order to the world. It provides a latch
> for the advances made by dynamic quality. It is recognized as
> routine, structure, normality, organization, conformity, the
> expected, stability, any pheonomenon that shows resistance to ange.
ange? is this a typo (age?) or a word I don't know?
>
>
> (Static Quality is the structuring-stability component of
> existence.)
>
> 6. What is inorganic quality?
>
> Inorganic quality is what is usually understood as matter.
>
> (Inorganic Quality is what resists chaos. It is also known as the
> physical universe)
yes
> . ...............................................
>
> 7. What is biological quality?
>
> Biological quality is life and that which propagates life.
>
> (Static Biological Quality is what resists Inorganic dissolution.
> It is also known as Life.)
>
yes
> ...............................................
>
> 8. What is social quality?
>
> Social quality is any phenomenon that propagates social order -
> laws, institutions, manners, classes, castes, religion, fashions and
> so on.
Can we add this?Social patterns are formed through imitation and retained
through habit.
>
>
> (Static Social Quality is what resists biological indulgence for the
> sake of a greater good.)
> ...............................................
>
> 9. What is intellectual quality?
>
> Intellectual quality is any phenomenon that propagates
> subject-object thinking - democracy, freedom of speech, mathematics,
> philosophy and so on.
>
I still get hung on the subject-object part of this. If there are, and have
been in the past, whole cultures whose intellectual ideas were NOT
subject/object, then perhaps the prevalence of subject/object is a cultural
thing.
How's this?
Intellectual quality is any phenomenon that propagates choice, consciousness
or thinking - democracy, freedom of speech, mathematics, philosophy and so on.
> (Static Intellectual Quality is what resists social coercion for the
> sake of individual freedom. Its most basic expression is the sense of
> self as different from environment (more worth than society), but has
> manifested lately as Habeas Corpus, Magna Charta, The right to vote,
> Human rights, Democracy etc.)
>
yes. well said.
> ...............................................
>
> 10. How do humans fit into the four levels of Static Quality?
>
> People are cohesions of changing static patterns of value. All
> living humans and all animals and plants are biological value because
> of the very fact that they are alive. A human who has been raised in
> a society will also be possessed by social values. These values may be
> recognized in the form of beliefs, behavior, speech patterns, customs
> and so on. Humans raised in most modern societies are also possessed
> by intellectual value. This is recognized as an ability to reason.
>
yes!
> (People are cohesion of changing static patterns of value. Humans
> are Inorganic value because the body is composed of matter. Humans
> are Biological value because they are living organisms. Humans are
> Social value to the extent that their community determines their
> thoughts and actions. Finally: Humans are Intellectual value to the
> extent that individuality dominates thoughts and actions.)
>
yes
> ...............................................
>
> 11. Why did Pirsig say that Lila had quality?
>
> Lila Blewitt, the subject of Robert M Pirsig's novel LILA, was
> described as having high biological quality because she was an
> attractive, voluptuous, and presumably fertile woman. Biologically
> her body was high value both for itself and for its implied a lity to
> bring forth more life. Lila was also described as having low social
> quality -- she was working class, had no social connections nor
> standing, and was a sometime prostitute. Neither did she have much
> intellectual quality, her thought patterns show little rationality or
> sense. However Lila was also described as having high dynamic
> quality. This is because she was a person who sought to break free
> from her static patterns of value.
>
>
yes
> (RichardRigel, who asked Phædrus if Lila had quality, viewed things
> from the Subject/Object vantage point,
Interesting. I always see Richard Rigel as the voice of the pure social.
All his intellectual patterns are judged/chosen for rightness according to
static social values. You seem to be calling this same viewpoint intellect
in the service of social. MoQ (for all of us but Pirsig), is also intellect
imbedded in social patterns, but what is the difference?
> and from there Society is
> merely an assembly of rules that the subjects are supposed to abide
> by, while Intellect is the said subjct's ability to think fast and
> smart about how to rise in social esteem, and Lila failed badly in
> both aspects. From the MOQ perspective however, the perspective
> changed (see FAQ no.10) Lila has lots of value. Or, as Phædrus later
> emphasized: Quality has lots of Lila(s)).
> ...............................................
>
> 12. How do the different levels of quality relate to each other?
>
> (The relationship is of a one-way dependency kind, like an upper
> storey of a house is dependent upon the lower one. The Inorganic
> quality is the basement upon which everything is raised and it can't
> be removed without collapsing the whole edifice. According to the
> MOQ, each quality level started "in the service" of its parent level,
> and as such indistinguishable from it, but grew to become an
> independent cause.
yes. house basement is an easy metaphor.
> ...............................................
>
> 13. What exactly are values?
>
> [This question is the same as "What is Quality".]
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> (The following are my new additions.)
>
> 14. How can biological and inorganic objects be composed of value?
>
> (If the physical world is Inorganic value patterns, then all
> material "objects" are composed of value. Similarly are living
> "objects" composed of Biological value patterns on top of the
> Inorganic value framework.
>
> 15. If the world is composed of values then who is doing the valueing?
>
> No one in the Subject/Object sense, but to a human being who
> straddles all quality levels, only one is highlighted at a time.
> Bodily sensations, needs or urges (instincts) bring focus to the
> Biological level. Impulses from the social "body" we identify w h,
> bring focus to that value plane. In our culture the focus dwells
> mostly on the Intellect; reality is tinted by the attic window
> glass, but attention shifts easily. A toothache and existence is
> seen from two rungs down.
>
yes!
> -------------
>
> There are more questions, so come on folks, enter your suggestions!
>
Thanks, Bo!
Maggie
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