Mfer's
ROGER
Thanks for digging out the full McWatt quote though I can't for the life of me see how the
substance differs from the garbled version or as suggested Pirsig, " and his MOQ are injured
every time someone posts it." But would agree that the root of the problem lies in:
>... a ton of confusion among various members on REALITY -- which is pure Quality -- and patterns
of > REALITY -- which are simplified, sliced and diced subjective and objective intellectual
> divisions of the undifferentiated seamless continuum.
And as Johnathan repeated in his last post even people who have been here since the start refuse to
look at and consider past arguments and will reject direct quotes of Pirsig that do not fit neatly
within the PoV their expressing at the time, all while claiming defence of "the MoQ."
JONATHAN
> Another theme I want to return to is the one of INTELLECT AS PLANNING.
Just as I finished this post and went online send it and your "PLANNING" post arrived. Guess I could
retitle it INTELLECT BY DESIGN.
**************************
Possibly my design experience makes it easier to understand this difference between REALITY and
patterns of REALITY. And the utility of this approach. This statement from one of my old design
theory textbooks may help illustrate :
"Is designing an art, a science, or a form of mathematics?"
" The view put forward here is that designing should not be confused with art, with science, or with
mathematics. It is a hybrid activity which depends, for it successful execution, upon a proper
blending of all three and is most unlikely to succeed if it is exclusively identified with any one.
The main point of difference is that of TIMING. Both artists and scientists operate on the physical
world as it exists in the PRESENT (whether it is real or symbolic), while mathematicians operate on
abstract relationships that are independent of historical TIME. Designers, on the other hand, are
forever bound to treat as real that which exists only in the imagined FUTURE and to specify ways in
which the FORESEEN thing can be made to exist." J. Christopher Jones -"Design Methods-seeds of
human future" Wiley 1970 [emphasis by author]
To restate MoQ hierarchy we start with REALITY-which is pure Quality or:
"Quality is the primary empirical reality of the world" Lila-pp 67
Which Pirsig then divides in to dynamic and static quality this way:
" Dynamic Quality is a stream of quality events going on for ever and ever, always the cutting edge
of the present. But in the wake of this cutting edge are static patterns of value. SODV pp12-13
" Life canít exist on Dynamic Quality alone. It has no staying power. To cling to Dynamic Quality
alone apart from any static patterns is to cling to chaos, ...Static quality patterns are dead when
they are exclusive, when they demand blind obedience and suppress Dynamic change. But static
patterns, nevertheless, provide a necessary stabilizing force to protect Dynamic progress for
degeneration. Although Dynamic quality, the Quality of Freedom, creates this world in which we live,
these patterns of static quality, the quality of order, preserve out world. Neither static or
Dynamic Quality can survive without the other." Lila-pp 121
One has to get to this point in the MoQ hierarchy , understand and accept the metaphysical premises
to this point in its development, in order to be able to understand and accept what occurs further
down the hierarchy.
Or in context of the design quote:
Life is a hybrid activity which depends, for it successful execution, upon the proper blending of
DYNAMIC AND STATIC QUALITY and is most unlikely to succeed if it is exclusively identified with any one
So Dynamic Quality is always the cutting edge of the PRESENT and in the wake of this cutting edge,
the PAST, are all these static patterns of value. As one participates in the design our reality
(which I believe we do) we are forever bound to treat as real, these STATIC PATTERNS OF QUALITY,
intellectual qualities, which exist in the PAST, so that we can specify ways in which FORESEEN
things can be made to exist in the imagined FUTURE.
In order to do this we must construct:
First, intellectual patterns of value, an intellect.
Followed very closely by:
".. one of the highest quality intellectual patterns there is... ...the intellectual pattern that
says "there is an external world of things out there which are independent of intellectual
patterns".
And when we do that we find that......"in this highest quality intellectual pattern, external
objects appear historically before intellectual patterns...
But this highest quality intellectual pattern itself MUST and DOES come before the external world,
not after,..." as it does in every human child between birth and walking age.
Why?
Because, the intellect, or intellectual level, is the medium which evaluates, orders, conveys, communicates,
reconciles, and archives static patterns of value. So without intellect and this "reject" high
quality intellectual pattern the rest of the MoQ could not be designed, let alone built.
3WD
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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