[MD] MOQ levels

[Steve Peterson]

> Hi Jorge,


>  Excuse my ignorance but, is there anyone that
> contends that "the lines between levels" are not fuzzy
> boundaries?
>

Steve:
Pirsig described the levels as discrete. I don't think the boundaries  
are fuzzy but it may be that I don't know enough about science to see  
if there is a fuzzy boundary between inorganic materials and living  
things. It can be very hard to see where instinct ends and socially  
learned behavior begins, but I use the MOQ assumption that there is a  
categorical difference between the two. I think social and  
intellectual patterns are also categorically different as a socially  
maintained behavior pattern is categorically different from a  
rationale for that behavior.

Here is a quote from Pirsig where he says that the levels are  
discrete rather than fuzzy categories on a continuum:

"In this plain of understanding static patterns of value are divided  
into
four systems: inorganic patterns, biological patterns, social  
patterns and
intellectual patterns.  They are exhaustive.  That's all there are.   
If you
construct an encyclopedia of four topics-Inorganic, Biological,  
Social and
Intellectual-nothing is left out.  No "thing," that is.  Only Dynamic
Quality, which cannot be described in any encyclopedia, is absent.
But although the four systems are exhaustive they are not exclusive.   
They
all operate at the same time and in ways that are almost independent of
each other.
This classification of patterns is not very original, but the  
Metaphysics
of Quality allows an assertion about them that is unusual.  It says they
are not continuous.  They are discrete.  They have very little to do  
with
one another.  Although each higher level is built on a lower one it  
is not
an extension of that lower level.  Quite the contrary.  The higher level
can often be seen to be in opposition to the lower level, dominating it,
controlling it where possible for its own purposes.
This observation is impossible in a substance-dominated metaphysics  
where
everything has to be an extension of matter.  But now atoms and  
molecules
are just one of four levels of static patterns of quality and there  
is no
intellectual requirement that any level dominate the other three."

Regards,
Steve