Platt Holden (pholden@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 4 Mar 1998 20:05:16 +0100
Ken Clark wrote:
> Donny,
> I have been reading your posts with pleasure even though I don't
> understand a word of them. Years ago I tried to read some philosophy but
> after extracting a little meaning with great effort it lasted about five
> minutes. I gave up. I still have a few of the books around but I only
keep
> them so I can snarl at them when I pass by.
> You caught my attention with Nietszche's philosophy of the Will to
Power.
> It sounds very similar to the epiphany I had the other night about the
> basis of Pirsig's philosophy being grounded in the force for greater
> information content that we observe everywhere around us in the universe
> including our minds (is that a curse word?).
> I have not had time to go thru ZMM and Lila again with TFFGIC in mind
but
> from what I have in my mind it all seems to fit. I like it because it
> relieves us from the necessity for appealing to mysticism, at least until
> we get back to where it all came from. I know that this idea will set up
a
> great howl in the squad but I have been uneasy about some of Pirsig's and
> the Squad's conclusions without being able to exactly put my finger on my
> objections. If my re-reading of ZMM and Lila bolsters my ideas then I
will
> have completely satisfied myself about the MOQ and will feel that I
> completely understand it. A quick glance back into ZMM (the genesis of
> Pirsig's thinking) makes me think that he may have had something like
this
> in mind. Lila is a fine book but to my mind smacks a wee bit of having to
> get something ready for publication. ZMM was the book that he poured his
> heart into. Squad, I am ready for a blast. Ken Clark
You'll get no howls or blasts from me. The first principle in my version of
the "Principles of the MoQ" began with this assertion:
"Quality is an immanent and transcendent moral force."
So I agree with you that force is an essential notion in the big picture.
After all, scientists tell us everything is a manifestation of energy
(force).
We can call this force TFFGIC (The Force for Greater Information Content)
or IATMF (Immanent and Transcendent Moral Force). Or we can call it Will to
Power, Elan Vital, Infinite Mind, God, Tao. Buddha, or simply the Force (as
in "Luke, the Force be with you."). Regardless of what we call it, Pirsig
has put his finger on its essential nature. It *creates* (Dynamic Quality)
and *preserves* (Static Quality).
In your terms, what is created and preserved is information. In Pirsigian
terms (included in the Squad's first principle), what is created and
preserved is Quality, "known to us as awareness." To me, "greater
information" and "greater awareness" carry the same meaning. In fact, I
think evidence for evolution lies more in the expansion of awareness
(information) than in fossils.
Where you and I part company is with your belief, asserted in previous
posts, that force acts randomly. Randomness is one of those underlying
assumptions of science that cannot be proved experimentally and is thus as
much an article of faith as any religious belief. (Recall Catch 37: If
religion requires belief in unprovable truth, math is the only religion
that can prove its a religion. [per Goedel's Theorem]).
In contrast, my underlying assumption, thanks to Pirsig and the MOQ, is
something arose from nothing not by accident, but by an ethical
requirement, i.e. Quality. If you believe that being alive and writing down
philosophical thoughts is good, then you have to admit that a universe that
made this possible is also good. Even if you assume the whole thing was an
accident, you have to admit it was a lucky one, and luck implies Good.
Be that as it may, while others on the Squad my try to derail your
Information train, I'm on board. And, I share your distaste for unreadable
philosophic treatises. My motto during my business years was, "If you can't
write your idea on the back of a business card, go back and work on it."
Both your Force for Greater Information Content and my Immanent and
Transcendent Moral Force meet that test without breaking a sweat.
Platt
Catch 46: All generalizations are false.
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