LUVIK@aol.com
Wed, 3 Jun 1998 16:19:16 +0100
Horse
My view is that each of the 4 arenas has static quality (that which is
good). And each pattern in each arena stays the way it is until a
dynamic pattern emerges to both challenge it and supplant it. The new
pattern thus becomes the new static pattern of good. This was true when
new combinations of carbon molecules and other things hung on and became
a new category viz. organic life.
An example in the area of society is when slavery was challenged in the
USA. It took some time but eventually the view became the accepted
static good that a society without slavery is better. The dynamic
pattern came within the arena of society not from the biological or
intellectual arena to the social arena. Society has a life of its own
as is particularly seen in the growth of New York City - nobody sat down
at the beginning and planned it all out. In fact every pattern has a
life of its own and struggles for survival and freedom.
An example of the entrance of a dynamic pattern in the intellectual
arena is when a problem is faced and someone asks "What's the best
answer to this problem?" instead of asking "How has this problem been
answered before?" Answering the later question would give you the static
intellectual pattern of good. Answering the former question may present
a dynamic pattern which may take the place of the existing static
pattern.
In the biological/organic arena, an example of the dynamic entering is
when reproduction by sexual selection entered the arena. It took a long
time for this pattern to ratchet itself up to a static pattern in lots
of organic/biological life but eventually it caught hold. There was no
intellectual dimensions to this activity in that intellectual activity
had not yet come to be. It no more possible for simple organisms to
will sexual selection than for carbon molecules to will to become
organic life.
The force of life keeps pushing these developments.
I suggest that Pirsig sees that there is the static and the dynamic in
each of the 4 arenas and not that dynamic is a category separate from
the 4.
I'm not so sure of this, but I think that "the cutting edge of
experience" is the same as dynamic quality.
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