[MD] The Bridge Over Paradox

[Platt Holden]

[Arlo]
> I'm not sure the MOQ "overcomes" paradox and loops, and neither does
> Hofstadter.  My take is in their acceptance of this as an unavoidable
> core to any  intellection. 

But I don't think the MOQ is intellection. It's valuation. And as Pirsig
explained, valuation occurs before intellection. So it doesn't succumb to 
paradox and loops. As Roger Penrose wrote in "The Emperor's New Mind:"

"We see the validity of the Godel proposition Pk(k) though we cannot 
derive it from the axioms . . . We need to employ insights from outside 
the system . . . in order to see that Pk(k) was a true proposition in the 
first place."

I submit that the "insights from outside the system" are valuations -- the
sense of "that's a good truth." As Penrose states, "When we convince 
ourselves of the validity of Godel's Theorem, we not only 'see' it, but by 
so doing we reveal the very non-algorithmic nature of the 'seeing' process 
itself." 

This "seeing" process " is Pirsig's direct experience/valuation process, 
the heart of the MOQ. 

The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that the MOQ 
provides a bridge over paradoxes, recursions, self-contradictions and 
loops because it rises above and looks down at  intellectual level. But, I 
could be wrong.

Platt