Hi Paul and LS:
I gather from your responses to me and others that you believe not only
Quality but also reality is subjective. If I've interpreted your posts
correctly, you're an Idealist which has a proud history in philosophy,
originating I believe with George Berkeley (1685-1753) and subsequently
built upon by Kant and Hegel. (Donny can fill you in the history of
Idealism much better than me).
One can argue cogently I think that empiricism on which science is built
is a form of idealism if you define experience as subjective. If I say, "It's
raining outside" you can either take my word for it or "prove" it by going
outside and “subjectively" experiencing raindrops falling on your head (or
a hot stove burning your flesh, or whatever). Subjectivity is implicit in
experience because whenever one asks "Whose experience ultimately
determines proof?” the answer must necessarily be, "Yours. Go see for
yourself."
But words like subjectivity and proof and idealism are not the essence of
experience. The essence of experience is more directly sensed than any
word later used to describe it. Words and thoughts are secondary to the
primary experience (reality) of existing in the present moment. As I sit
here typing this I'm aware of the ever present "now of being," the only
"real" reality you or I will ever know. That "now" is between my sense of
self (subjective) and the keyboard under my fingers (objective) and since
it encompasses everything all at once, it is more real than any division I
later make like the one I just made between myself and the keyboard.
I agree with Pirsig when he says that this primary experience of
existence is an evaluative experience from which thoughts and actions
follow. Yes, it's "subjective" if you later divide the world from your primary
experience into subjects and objects. But it is not subjective if you later
divide the world into static and Dynamic Quality. Why divide it that way?
Because the Quality division explains things better than the Subject-
Object division (division being necessary to explain anything all).
Of course, which division you consider best (of higher quality) is your
choice. But whatever your choice, you will be asserting a value. In fact,
when you deny that reality is value, you are asserting a value. No matter
what you think, judgment is involved. And where there's judgment there's
qualities, values, morals. There's no escape.
Platt
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