hi all
ROG:
> But, even if we accept that evolution leads to increasing dynamicness, we
> still must ask...... Is evolution necessarily more moral? Why couldn't we
> say that the stability of pattern survival is more moral? Or nihilism? Or
> de-evolution? Or that it is complexity that is more moral? Or that
> everything is moral and that evolution and devolution and stability and
> complexity and nihilism are all just Maya? Pirsig could have said any of
> these. But he didn't.
3WD
Is evolution [even if accepted as increasing in complexity or
dynamicness] necessarily more moral? When stumped by hard questions like
this I often turn to my dictionary in a effort to understand, in this
context, What does moral mean? My Webster's New World 3rd College
Edition list 12 different contexts and definitions. Then if you accept
Pirsig's claim that [values ='s morals] and add in the 13 value
definitions you find 25 different possibilities to choose from. It's
easy to see why he said:
"Morality is not a simple set of rules. It's a very complex struggle of
conflicting patterns of values. This conflict is the residue of
EVOLUTION. As new patterns EVOLVE they come into conflict with old ones.
Each stage of EVOLUTION creates in its wake a wash of problems. Lila. p163
The definition of "moral" that jumped out at me this time was #6. "based
on a strong probability. [a moral certainty]"
One could say that the moment that defined the beginning of Post-Modern
Era , with all its ongoing angst, was when man's search for certainty in physical
reality ended with the ascendancy of uncertainty and it's counterpart
probability.
"In the sharp formulation of the law of causality-- "if we know the
present exactly, we can calculate the future"- it is not the conclusion
that is wrong but the premise. --Heisenberg, in uncertainty principle
paper, 1927
After Heisenberg the nagging question was; If " we can't know the
present exactly" even in the smallest physical actions, how "can we
calculate the future" consequences of any action?
Now after nearly 80 years and the rise and fall of numerous nihilistic
and existential theories the "good" is finally starting to show through.
What the uncertain principle first did was close the era of
"determinism" and "materialism" and started the investigation into
theories of reality based on "probabilities."
These "moral" approaches are " based on strong probabilit[ies]", with
"probability" defined as, "the quality or state of being likely to
occur; that can be reasonably but not certainly be expected" In "ism"
form "probabilism" is defined as "the doctrine that certainty in
knowledge is impossible and that probability is a sufficient basis for
action and belief" Or combined, an evolutionary "moralism" might be
"the doctrine that certainty in knowledge is impossible but that strong
probabilities, or qualities, or states of being, that can be reasonably,
but not certainly be expected, is a sufficient basis for action and
belief."
Now why is this important? Because implicit in uncertainty and
probability is some degree of choice, or freedom, even at the sub-atomic
level. Pirsig puts it this way:
"The only difference between causation and the value is that the word
"cause" implies absolute certainty whereas the implied meaning of
"value" is one of preference. In classical science it was supposed that
the world always works in terms of absolute certainty and that "cause"
is the more appropriate word to describe it. But in modern quantum
physics all that is changed. Particles "prefer" to do what they do. An
individual particle is not absolutely committed to one predictable
behavior. What appears to be an absolute cause is just a very consistent
pattern of preferences." Pirsig, Robert M., Lila. An inquiry into
morals. New York (Bantam Books) 1991, 104
These preferences or "freedoms of choice" becomes more important with
the evolution of living systems that have the ability to pass along past
evolutionary histories via RNA and DNA and of even greater value with
the evolution of sentient beings able to pass along knowledge by social
and intellectual patterns. This is because evolutionary process based
in "uncertainty" and "probability" creates a huge numbers of similar,
parallel, but because of choice, subtly different, individual
evolutionary paths each level or advance with a more inclusive and more
probable grasp on past and present realities. So rather than a "random
walk" or pure " trial and error" selection, when "good" is selected
there is built in, based on the transmitted evolutionary history, the
"strong probability" those reproductions will have similar "good"
qualities plus the ability of these 2nd generation "goods" have to make
choices, ranging from subtle to radical, without endangering the present
"good" inherent in all the "other goods" of that particular evolutionary
line. So rather than "only the good die young" the good lives on in an
evolutional hierarchy always seeking "strong probabilities" for the
union with ever greater good.
3WD
On hierarchies:
"Hiero-means sacred or holy, and -arch means governance or rule.
Introduced by the great sixth century Christian mystic Saint Dionysisu
the Areopagite, the "Hierarchies" referred to nine celestial orders, with
Seraphim and Cerubim at the top and the archangels and angels at the
bottom... These orders were ranked because each successive order was
more inclusive and more encompassing and in that sense "higher"
...............
As used in modern psychology, evolutionary
theory, and systems theory, a hierarchy is simply a ranking of orders of
events according to their "holistic capacity" In any developmental
sequence, what is whole at one stage becomes part of a larger whole at
the next stage." [Wilbur- Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: 17-21]
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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