Bodvar Skutvik (skutvik@online.no)
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 09:45:39 +0100
Peter, Hugo, Donny, Magnus and Squad.
I notice that there is a very interesting discussion going on about
the objectivity of the Quality world; if it is a fact - a brute fact
even - or if it cancels itself so to say.
As you Donny know did Phaedrus of ZMM emphasize that there are no
facts, only observations, or experience: data. When Medieval man
observed the night sky s-he saw the facts of the Ptolemaian cosmos,
just as we see the facts of modern cosmology. Fact and truth are
interchangeable here (I think this is what Magnus means when he
says that Relativity and Quantum Mechanics has suspended the
notion of "brute fact"). However, Phaedrus of LILA says that there
are four objective layers of "facts": the well-known value hierachy.
Peter says that science tries to observe the Intellectual level by
bringing in so many diverse social and biological samples so as to
bring out what is purely intellectual patterns. Well, as far as I know
scientists do not work with the MOQ as the provider of
hypotheses, but hopefully some day...Peter goes on to say: "So in
a sense "objectivity" is not an evil SOM construct....etc.
Right!!!!!. We arrived at the conclusion that the SOM may be seen
as the Intellect of MOQ. It is no evil, but the greatest achievement
and the highest morality. However, this idea implies that the weak
dynamic force has started to free itself from the static bonds of
intellect: that the MOQ is a new groping step of evolution! (Platt
Holden's brainchild).
Hugo vents his favourite idea of the Mind/Matter (or Mind/Body)
dualism as a reality (brute fact) independent of any metaphysical
consideration (a priori so to say). That it has its roots far back in
antiquity is no secret; Pirsig's claim is that it is the result of the
Greek's "increasing ability of abstraction". No, that the Mind/Body
dualism is SOM's primary offshoot I will maintain. After all it has
been stressed over and over that prehistoric man did not see this
"fact". The old Greek myth gods - like our Nordic ones - weren't
spirits. Invisible (usually) or in the shape of anything, and
imperishable, but not members of a spiritual realm. At Descartes'
time however the MBd had been firmly settled. Well, Hugo goes on to
repair this, and I take the liberty to include what he says in the
SOM-as-Intellect-of-MOQ idea. The Mind/Body dichotomy was/is a
valuable stage that has brought humankind great strides forward -
MOQ-wise: a whole new moral level, but is now in the process of being
circumscribed.
Bo
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