[MD] moq thought experiment 1.

[Ham Priday]

Hi Squonk --

[Ham, to Marsha]:
> Unfortunately, you've been conned into believing that existence
> is the source and precedes essence, that the patterns are real but
> you are not, whereas in actuality the reverse is true. You create
> your reality patterns, they don't create you.  To the extent that
> Pirsig has made Quality the primary reality and dismissed the
> essential Self, he is an existentialist.  He has simply replaced the
> Being of existentialism with DQ.

[Squonk]:
> In an extreme sense there may be something to be said for this:
> radical freedom of choice could suggest that we may choose
> what ever we wish to describe as our reality.
> However, this would also mean that essence is subject to the
> same radical freedom, which begs the question, how is it that
> essence remains stable in the face of radical freedom?

First, I don't regard individual autonomy or freedom as "radical", although 
it may be a radical concept for Pirsigians.  Secondly, it isn't choosing 
whatever we wish to "describe" that determines our reality, but choosing 
whatever values we are drawn to.  In my philosophy the Value of Essence is 
primary to existence and is converted to physical phenomena (things and 
events) by experience.

How an immutable Essence can give rise to difference and change is a leading 
metaphysical question on which I've expended considerable thought.  The 
simplest way of explaining my Creation hypothesis is to use the "other side 
of the coin" analogy.  Very briefly, since Essence IS absolutely, its 
potential to create is exclusion or "denial" of its wholeness, which is 
negation.  (Nothingness = not-other; i.e., other side of the coin.)  What is 
experienced is the appearance of  "otherness" reduced (differentiated) by 
nothingness and constructed of essential Value. The mode of experience is 
sequential, so that we perceive existence as process in space/time.  From 
the perspective of Essence, however, there is no other (Essence has negated 
it), nothing changes, and Value is constantly refreshed by the realization 
of its negated agents.  (See the Creation section of my website for the 
detailed hypothesis.)

> By the way Ham, i see you're published now.

Yes, 'Seizing the Essence' came out with the new year.  Looks like you've at 
least taken a peek at my site.  I anticipate many more questions.

Essentially yours,
Ham