MF
This is the picture of the MOQ from the Subjects, Objects Data and Values essay (on moq.org in the Forum). It's probably going to
come out awful but I'm giving it a try.
<--- DYNAMIC QUALITY --->
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| _____________________ |
|| Intellect ||
||_____________________|| Objective
| ^ | <-- Static
| _____________________ | Patterns
|| Social Patterns ||
||_____________________||
|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|
^
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| _____________________ |
|| Biological Patterns ||
||_____________________|| Subjective
| ^ | <-- Static
| _____________________ | Patterns
|| Inorganic Patterns ||
||_____________________||
|_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _|
In this diagram you will notice that Dynamic Quality is not shown in any block. It is in the background. This seems the best way to
represent it. It is not only outside the blocks,
it pervades them but it goes on where the blocks leave off.
The blocks are organized in the order of evolution, with each higher block more recent and more Dynamic than the lower ones. The
block at the top contains such static intellectual patterns as theology, science, philosophy, mathematics. The placement of the
intellect in this position makes it superior to society, biology and inorganic patterns but still inferior to Dynamic Quality. The
Metaphysics of Quality says there can be many competing truths and it is value that decides among them. This is the very essence of
William James' philosophy of Pragmatism which Bohr greatly admired. The name "Complementarity" itself means there can be multiple
truths.
The social patterns in the next box down include such institutions as family, church and government. They are the patterns of
culture that the anthropologist and sociologist study.
In the third box are the biological patterns: senses of touch, sight hearing, smell and taste. The Metaphysics of Quality follows
the empirical tradition here in saying that the senses are the starting point of reality, but -- all importantly -- it includes a
sense of value. Values are phenomena. To ignore them is to misread the world. It says this sense of value, of liking or disliking,
is a primary sense that is a kind of gatekeeper for everything else an infant learns. At birth this sense of value is extremely
Dynamic but as the infant grows up this sense of value becomes more and more influenced by accumulated static patterns. In the past
this biological sense of value has been called the "subjective" because there values cannot be located in an external physical
object. But quantum theory has destroyed the idea that only properties located in external physical objects have reality.
The bottom box shows inorganic patterns. The Metaphysics of Quality says objects are composed of "substance" but it says that this
substance can be defined more precisely as "stable inorganic patterns of value." This added definition makes substance sound more
ephemeral than previously but it is not. The objects look and smell and feel the same either way. The Metaphysics of Quality agrees
with scientific realism that these inorganic patterns are completely real, and there is no reason that box shouldn't be there, but
it says that this reality is ulimately a deduction made in the first months of an infant's life and supported by the culture in
which the infant grows up. I have noticed that Einstein in his 1936 essay Physics and Reality also held this view. (Jammer 230) Bohr
is sometimes mistakenly thought to say that this inorganic level does not exist. However both Folse and Max Jammer argue at length
that this is not true. He does not deny this inorganic reality. He simply says that the properties the physicist describes cannot be
said to reside at this level.
I can now say some general things about this diagram:
Values
First, each higher pattern grows out of the lower one so we tend to think of the higher pattern as the property of the lower one.
However if you study the world you will observe that the higher patterns often oppose the lower ones. Biological values of life
oppose physical values of gravitation and entropy. Social values of family and law and
order oppose biological values of lust and greed. Intellectual values of truth and freedom of opinion often oppose social patterns
of government. This opposition of levels of static patterns offers a good explanation of why science in the past has rejected what
it has called "values." The "values" it has rejected are static social prejudices and static biological emotions. When social
patterns such as religion are mixed in with the scientific method, and when biological emotions are mixed in with the scientific
method these "values" are properly considered a source of corruption of the scientific method. Science, it is said should be "value
free", and if these were the only kind of values the statement would be true.
However, the Metaphysics of Quality observe that these two kinds of values are lower on the evolutionary ladder than the
intellectual pattern of science. Science rejects them to set free its own higher intellectual pattern. The Metaphysics of Quality
calls this a correct moral judgment by science. However science never rejects the value of truth. It never rejects the value of
experiment. It never rejects the value of mathematical precision. Most important, it never rejects Dynamic Quality. The greatest
strength of the scientific method is that it always allows new experiences, new ideas and a new evaluation of what it learns.
Next, notice that the Metaphysics of Quality provides a larger framework in which to integrate subjectivity and objectivity.
Subjectivity and objectivity are not separate universes that have no connection to each other. They are instead separate stages of a
single evolutionary process called value. I can find no place where the words subjective and objective are used where they cannot be
replaced by one of these four categories. When we get rid of the words "subjective" and "objective" completely often there is a
great increase in the clarity of what is said.
So there it is, does anyone have any comments? Richard, you must have had something in mind when you suggested the topic...
Diana
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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