Bodvar Skutvik (skutvik@online.no)
Fri, 23 Jan 1998 05:38:31 +0100
Tue, 20 Jan 1998 22:04:32 +0000 (GMT), Anthony McWatt ended
his message thus:
> Well, I hope the above will be helpful to you, Ken.
> I look forward to hearing your (or anyone else`s in the LS
> for that matter)comments on this ; especially any ideas you
> may have on the related subject of "space".
Anthony, Ken and LS.
I knew Anthony had an extensive Pirsig file, but this is just
amazing, and very helpful. What Pirsig says here has a bearing on
much of what we have been discussing lately.
Time and space? I have often pondered what the MOQ stance on these
classical riddles would be. This much has however been clear to me:
Space as an absolute - 'a priori' - entity as treated by Kant (built
upon Euclid's postulates, especially the famous fifth one) is gone,
and so is absolute time as perceived by Newtonian physics.
And as the MOQ is a relativity of metaphysics it must have some
pretty radical views on space and time too.
And radical it was: Once I saw Pirsig's answer I understood my unease
about the matter. For instance I had criticized Lars Marius for
wanting to find out "what's really objective", but to ask what time
and space REALLY are, was my way of objectivizing these
things. Pirsig says that they are Static Intellectual Patterns of
Value and what else? Everything treated by us theoretically,
mathematically, philosophically - abstractedly for short - is
SInPOV. That could be the only MOQ answer.
But that does not mean that we can't say anything about
time and space, it only puts them in their correct slot. Pirsig goes
on to say:
> > .....If you mistakenly call
> > one of these concepts `ultimate reality`, then ultimate
> > reality becomes ephemeral too. Thus classical scientific
> > reality keeps changing all the time as scientists keep
> > discovering new conceptual explanations."
Yes, reality keeps changing because our concepts of reality -
including space and time - is subject to dynamic change. If anyone
says that this makes the MOQ conceptual too and prone to change I
don't think Pirsig would object..
I see Anthony that your discussion with Eric goes on, he will
possibly show up at the Squad sooner or later! Also thanks for the
earlier extract from a Pirsig letter.
Bo
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