[MD] Intellectual activity

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Platt to Ham]
No doubt in my mind that the aesthetic experience includes intellectual and
emotional reactions. But, I think it's something more.

[Arlo]
Yes. What that "something more" is, I'd argue, is the entry point for DQ. It is
where, in Peircian terms, abductive inference arises. It is where, for Pirsig,
hypothesis originates.

Pirsig, "The formation of hypotheses is the most mysterious of all the
categories of scientific method. Where they come from, no one knows. A person
is sitting somewhere, minding his own business, and suddenly...flash!...he
understands something he didn’t understand before. Until it’s tested the
hypothesis isn’t truth. For the tests aren’t its source. Its source is
somewhere else."

Although this forces a regress into some terminological issues (although for
Ham, I'd guess, this is always a huge issue with Pirsig), I liken the aesthetic
experience to "romantic quality" as it was described in this sentence in ZMM.

"The real train of knowledge isn’t a static entity that can be stopped and
subdivided. It’s always going somewhere. On a track called Quality. And that
engine and all those 120 boxcars are never going anywhere except where the
track of Quality takes them; and romantic Quality [aesthetic experience], the
leading edge of the engine, takes them along that track."

[Platt continued]
What the term Spirit adds to the phenomenon of aesthetic sensibility is to
express in some way, however weakly, the ineffable something that comes 
through when confronted with great beauty.

[Arlo]
Yes. The "ineffable something", in my opinion, is Dynamic Quality. 

[Platt]
But, perhaps the above is enough to answer your question. I sure Arlo will
respond in kind, though not necessarily with with the same outlook.

[Arlo]
While I'm not familiar with Wilbur, I can find nothing but agreement in the
quote and explanation your provide.

Arlo