[MD] Value and the Individual

[craigerb at comcast.net]

Ham, 
Since I wasn't included in the orignial data, let me add my "2 paragraphs' 
worth": (For non-Americans, this is a pun on the American colloquialism 
"2 cents' worth', meaning "an additional contribution".) 
I think in surveying the MoQ you should follow the Woodward & Bernstein 
Rule: you need 2 independent sources (or Pirsig). 

[Ham] 
> the fundamental problem of the MoQ -- its denial of subjective 
> individuality. 

The MoQ does not deny subjective individuality, but instead explains it. 

[Ham]
> the individual subject is enveloped in experiences, concepts, and
> principles that are not indigenous to him but are abstracted from
> a collective reservoir 

You make it sound like our experience is like picking out wallpaper:
One goes to a catalog (of experiences) & selects one.
Try this analogy:
When you go to the zoo to visit the primate house (or lion house),
you don't find anyone who you evolved from.  You do, however,
find someone with whom you have a common ancestor.
Similarly, when you & another person see the same thing,
what you see is not dependent on what she sees (& vice versa),
but it is dependent on what you have in common. 

[Ham] 
> Pirsig's need to eliminate S/O distinctions 

Pirsig does not eliminate the S/O distinction, but instead: 
"The Metaphysics of Quality resolves the relationship between 
intellect and society, subject and object, mind and matter, 
by embedding all of them in a larger system of understanding." 
("Lila", p. 344) 

[Ham] 
> Quality...the underlying reality of existence. As there is no other 
> reality for Pirsig, existence is its own source 

I don't think "Existence is its own source" is a meaningful statement 
within the MoQ. It is better put thusly: Quality best explains existence 
but Quality is not itself explained by anything else. 

[Ham] 
> the four levels of Quality are the creative agents of the experienced 
> world. 

Again, not a good paraphrase of the MoQ. Better: The PATTERNS 
that are part of the four levels are static latchings of DQ. We experience 
DQ & the patterns. 
Craig