[MD] Intellectual activity

[Platt Holden]

Hi Ham,

> I'm always amused when people "accuse" me of being an idealist, as if
> this was something I was trying to hide.  Your use of the word
> "suspiciously" makes the accusation sound even more sinister.  Yes,
> Platt, I consider myself an idealist, but not quite in the sense that
> Plato was, if that explains your cap "I".

Rather than Plato I had in mind Bishop Berkeley, the eighteenth century 
Irish philosopher whose philosophy of Idealism was summed up by his 
dictum, "Esse est percipi" (To be is to be perceived).

> The world's existence before man is a moot point from several
> perspectives. Firstly, if experience creates the universe (as Mr. Pirsig
> suggests), there is no world prior to man.

Assumption: Only man experiences. My cat UTOE (Universal Theory of 
Everything) challenges that assumption. Further, he refuses to accept 
that his existence depends on my looking at him. 

>  Secondly, if time (and
> space) are constructs of man's intellect (also an MoQ inference), then
> man's world and reality are "co-eternally" absolute.

Assumption: Time and space constitute reality. Modern physics 
challenges that assumption. 

> I'm of the opinion
> that space/time is the mode of human awareness, and that its dual nature
> reflects the self/other dichotomy which makes being-aware possible. 
> Change (or evolution) in what we experience as "being" is a primary
> factor in the realization of value, but it does not occur in the
> essential Source which is immutable.  Which is one reason I don't
> discuss metaphysics from an evolutionary viewpoint.

Assumption: Evolution is irrelevant in explaining reality. Modern 
biology challenges that assumption. (Someday the biologists and the 
physicists may get together. A reality consisting of value levels could 
bring this about.)

> I've tried reading the Ant-Scott dialogue, which you've recently
> praised, but got lost in the Undifferentiated Aesthetic Continuum.  To
> me that's an oxymoron.  Can you conceive of an aesthetic phenomenon that
> isn't differentiated? The very basis of art, music, and the color or
> sonic spectrum that applies to them is relative and differential. 

Assumption: The aesthetic continuum refers exclusively to art. Ant, 
Northrop, Pirsig, Platt and others challenge that assumption. The 
aesthetic continuum is experience prior to conceptual differentiation, 
aesthetic because that experience is of value or Quality.
.  
> Morality is another example: Could you have good and evil without
> difference?  Would you know excellence from mediocrity in an
> undifferentiated continuum?  Existence is a highly differentiated,
> multiplistic experience, and the greatest difference is between
> awareness and beingness.

Assumption: Existence can only be known by difference. Many challenge 
that assumption because they have experienced figure and ground 
(beingness) as one. I've seen it while in the presence of great art, 
others in meditation,  "flow" or "peak experiences."  

Assumption: Morality is about good and evil in a human social context.
Pirsig challenges that assumption by showing that the premise of a 
moral (quality) universe explains reality better than a subject-object 
universe.

[Platt previously] 
> > Beauty is a sensibility that overcomes estrangement and finitude
> > IMO.
 
> If by Beauty you mean essential Value, we're in agreement.  Value is the
> transcendent factor in human experience.  It is man's true "essence"
> because it represents his connection to the Absolute Source.  However, I
> doubt very much that we are capable of sensing this value in its
> undifferentiated purity.  Since our realization of values is
> psycho-somatic, it is necessarily restricted by the sensory limitations
> of our biological organism.  Although the mystical experience of Nirvana
> is alleged to "overcome" these limitations, I don't see how this is
> possible for a normal human being.  This is not to knock meditative
> "states" of contemplation, which can remove distractions and lead to
> introspective insight.  But as for realizing the undifferentiated value
> of Essence, I tend to look at such claims (to use your word)
> "suspiciously".

Unless you've had the experience yourself, your suspicions are 
understandable.

[Platt previously]
> > Yes, the ugly (dissonance) is sometimes deliberately fostered by
> > artists to make the resolution all the more beautiful by contrast.
 
> This was not what I had in mind.  I was referring to dissonant intervals
> and unresolved chordal progressions in the music of Beethoven,
> Rachmaninoff, etc.  Music is an art form that spans time.  Great music,
> like a good novel or an adventurous life, works its themes through a
> series of conflicts and struggles to reach a synthesis that inspires us.
>  That's the essence of values like beauty.  To achieve joy we must
> endure some pain.  Next time you get to hear Beethoven's 9th, listen for
> that single dissonant chord that introduces the Choral movement and
> presages the joy to come.
 
I thought that's what I said in citing that dissonance leads to a 
beautiful resolution. 

Best regards,
Platt