[MD] Dawkins a Materialist (is watching?)

[Case]

[Case]
I have pointed out a couple of times Pirsig's statement that a 
Metaphysics of Quality would be like a metaphysics of randomness. He 
dismisses this as absurb. I think the MoQ should embrace it.

[m]
Did RMP really state this?  Wow!  Where?

[Case]
In Chapter 2 when he is talking about his tray of slips he says:

"Some of the slips were actually about this topic: random access and
Quality. The two are closely related. Random access is at the essence of
organic growth, in which cells, like post-office boxes, are relatively
independent. Cities are based on random access. Democracies are founded on
it. The free market system, free speech, and the growth of science are all
based on it. A library is one of civilization's most powerful tools
precisely because of its card-catalog trays. Without the Dewey Decimal
System allowing the number of cards in the main catalog to grow or shrink at
any point the whole library would soon grow stale and useless and die."

I know the random access is not the same thing as randomness although I
would argue randomness is essential in the context of the kinds of growth he
refers too. It is product of the complexity of the systems he uses as
examples.

Then in Chapter 5 after a discussion of anthropology when he talks about
resistance he is likely to get over attempting to create a metaphysics. He
says:

"Since a metaphysics is essentially a kind of dialectical definition and
since Quality is essentially outside definition, this means that a
'Metaphysics of Quality' is essentially a contradiction in terms, a logical
absurdity.
It would be almost like a mathematical definition of randomness. The more
you try to say what randomness is the less random it becomes. Or 'zero,' or
'space' for that matter."