[MD] tiny skull... change... nothingness...

[Ham Priday]

Hi David --


> My experiences of intelligence beyond myself
> make me feel that this intelligence goes beyond
> the individual but it is as much involved in a journey
> and an exploration as we are.

You see, David, this is typical of statements based on Pirsig's collectivist
view of Intellect which is totally incomprehensible to me.  Intellection is
what the human INDIVIDUAL does; Intellect is HIS capacity to think and form
concepts.  Intellect is not Quality or Essence.  It is not some rarified
extracorporeal dimension that hangs around waiting for man to "catch up"
with it.  Without man there can be no intellect.

[Ham, previously]:
> Differentiation occurs only in the human
> perspective of Essence, which is Existence.

[DM asks]:
> Why?  Why does the One need the many?

The answer to your question is the whole point of Essentialism.  You ask
"Why?", which indicates that there is a reason for "the many."  Indeed there
is.  But you won't find it in Pirsig's philosophy.

That reason is fully elaborated in my on-line thesis.  I can only provide a
brief synopsis here:

I define Essence as the absolute, immutable Source.  It is the potentiality
of all that exists throughout space and time, and is responsible for man's
concepts of perfection, goodness, beauty, love, and freedom, as well as
imperfection, evil, ugliness, hatred, and slavery.  These concepts come from
our values, which are in turn our differentiated sensibility of Essence.

Metaphysically, Essence is self-contained and unchanging potentiality.  But
potentiality is meaningless unless it can be actualized.  Within the
absolute potentiality of Essence is the power to actualize Difference.
Nicholas of Cusa theorized that Difference or "contrariety" is the
actualized mode of space/time existence.  He also defined the source as the
potentiality to which "no other can be opposed."  In other words, Essence is
the Not-other and the individual subject is a "negated" other.

My ontology is that Essence is "negational".  It negates (denies)
Nothingness to create otherness, the result of which is a dichotomy in which
sensibility is divided from its Source to produce the appearance of Being.
The individual Self is the infinitesimally differentiated "agent" of this
dichotomy, and is drawn by the Value of the Source through the space/time
mode of experience, ultimately reclaiming its estranged Essence.  As a free
agent, each self chooses the relative values which determine its essential
identity.

Thus, the purpose of existence is to provide a differentiated otherness
whereby the Value of Essence can be realized by an autonomous agent.
Teleologically, actualized reality "perfects" Essence by affording an
"extrinsic" perspective of its intrinsic Value.

Thanks for another opportunity, David

Best regards,
Ham