[MD] Distinguishing Levels

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

Steve (Platt mentiononed),

I agree that "true-false" is a misguided way to categorize intellectual
patterns. Pirsig had something to say about this...

"Unlike sub­ject-object metaphysics the Metaphysics of Quality does not insist
on a single exclusive truth. If subjects and objects are held to be the
ultimate reality then we're permitted only one construction of things-that
which corresponds to the "objective" world-and all other constructions are
unreal. But if Quality or excellence is seen as the ultimate reality then it
becomes possible for more than one set of truths to exist. Then one doesn't
seek the absolute "Truth." One seeks instead the highest quality intellectual
explanation of things with the knowledge that if the past is any guide to the
future this explanation must be taken provisionally; as useful until something
better comes along. One can then examine intellectual realities the same way he
examines paintings in an art gallery, not with an effort to find out which one
is the "real" painting, but simply to enjoy and keep those that are of value.
There are many sets of intellectual reality in existence and we can perceive
some to have more quality than others, but that we do so is, in part, the
result of our history and current patterns of values.

Or, using another analogy, saying that a Metaphysics of Quality is false and a
subject-object metaphysics is true is like saying that rectangular coordinates
are true and polar coordinates are false. A map with the North Pole at the
center is confusing at first, but it's every bit as correct as a Mercator map.
In the Arctic it's the only map to have. Both are simply intellectual patterns
for interpreting reality and one can only say that in some circumstances
rectangular coordinates provide a better, simpler interpretation."

Intellectual patterns, attempts to codeify Quality via symbolic representae,
will always be something "less" than Quality. Platt recently refers to this
statement, "Purity, identified, ceases to be purity." Pirsig, in the above
quote, uses the word "provisionally" for how we should deal with the
"truthness" ("truthiness"?) of any intellectual pattern.

"The Metaphysics of Quality is a continuation of the mainstream of twentieth
century American philosophy. It is a form of pragmatism, of instrumentalism,
which says the test of the true is the good. It adds that this good is not a
social code or some intellectualized Hegelian Absolute. It is direct everyday
experience."

"Reality, which is value, is understood by every infant. It is a universal
starting place of experience that everyone is confronted with all the time.
Within a Metaphysics of Quality, science is a set of static intellectual
patterns describing this reality, but the patterns are not the reality they
describe."

Arlo