Dear all,
I've been too busy this month to write to either forum. I usually only
start composing a post if I can expect an hour or two undisturbed, and
this just hasn't happened recently (except while I have been sleeping).
However, the problem I raised this month has been very much on my mind,
and I have also written on it many times before. I would thus like to
suggest an approach to resolving the problem:
<<<1.3 Pirsig has previously made it quite clear that patterns of static
quality can all be placed within the four levels of the MoQ, but he also
says that morality operates between the levels. Thus morality seems to
be
quite different from patterns of quality and it's a contradiction to say
that quality and morality are the same thing.>>>
The way Pirsig first describes the levels and illustrates them via the
difference between computer hardware and software, the levels seem to be
orthogonal, thus it is difficult to understand how there can be any
inter-level conflict whatever. On the other hand, the higher levels
clearly relate t lower level patterns. Thus, I have previously described
the relationship as one of the higher level MEDIATING conflicts between
lower level patterns.
The pattern that says that sugar (Inorganic pattern) is good, but
sulphuric acid (inorganic pattern) bad is a BIOLOGICAL pattern. Such
patterns are what define amoebae and other organisms. The sugar and acid
are patterns on one level, the CHOICE between them a higher level.
Similarly, the Social level may choose between biological patterns,
selecting tribal leaders, making rules like "Ladies first". That is what
the social level is - a vast network of choices.
Thus, the pattern that says that a human life is worth more than that of
a bacterium is a social pattern. The doctor may then play off a variety
of lower patterns (antibiotic and other drugs) to ensure that the human
survives and not the bacterium.
Perhaps and even better example is agriCULTURE. Man's ability to choose
what to grow is perhaps one of the most important social patterns in the
evolution of mankind
My feeling is that suggestion is completely consistent with the MoQ,
though I admit that Pirsig does not appear to have made any
investigations in this direction.
Jonathan
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:03:29 BST