[MD] For Peter

[MarshaV]

At 02:47 AM 8/29/2008, you wrote:
>Platt --
>
>[Ham, previously]:
>>Unrealized value is a malapropism.  Without sensible awareness
>>there can be no consciousness and no realization.
>>Which for "theists" like ourselves suggests a reason for the
>>agency of  individuated selfness.
>>
>>Do you agree?
>
>[Platt]:
>
>>Well, yes and no. I think there's a reason for being self-aware,
>>namely that being so is better than not being so. But, of course,
>>I can't prove it. :-)
>
>You "think" that being is better than not being?  I don't believe 
>for a moment that this flippancy about your existence is 
>sincere.  Can there be any doubt that your survival as a human being 
>is the biological, social, and intellectual purpose of Platt Holden?
>
>Ron has initiated another debate (Core problemS) about whether the 
>levels are discrete or continuous, from which I shall recuse myself 
>because they're meaningless.  Value, on the other hand, is 
>self-evident, as Pirsig himself made quite clear.  This is not an 
>'apples and pears' comparison or an aesthetic judgment call.  It's a 
>given.  There is no value greater or more vital to the individual 
>than his own existence.  Every decision and action that you perform 
>in life is to preserve, sustain and enrich your being in the 
>world.  Even if you were unconscious, your biological functions 
>would continue working toward that purpose.
>
>When I started describing Essentialism on this forum, I assumed that 
>the value of being-aware was a universal, self-evident 
>principle.  Instead it seems to be the most difficult concept I've 
>had to get across here.  Whether it's the levels hierarchy, the 
>notion of a moral universe, or Pirsig's overcoming of duality, the 
>MoQists by their own description are selfless automatons produced 
>and controlled by biological, social and intellectual forces whose 
>only purpose is to move an insensible universe toward its own 
>inevitable betterness.  I suppose we should be thankful for this 
>fleeting taste of cosmic value.
>
>This is worse than postmodern nihilism.  This is living in a state 
>of total self-denial.
>
>IMHO, of course.
>
>Regards,
>Ham
>

Ham,

I do acknowledge a self, a self that is an ever-changing, collection 
of overlapping, interrelated, inorganic, biological, social and 
intellectual, static patterns of value.

Marsha







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Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.........
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