[MD] Re differences between MoQ and SOM

[MarshaV]

Platt,

Is this your personal interpretation, or something approved and 
published on the MOQ website, or what?

Marsha





At 10:31 AM 10/17/2008, you wrote:

>{Andre]
> > I realise that this Discuss is one place but ehhh a small instruction
> > manual? a sort of a MoQ for dummies like me?
>
>The following goes back 10 years or so, but you may find it of value:
>
>Primer on the Metaphysics of Quality
>
>What is Metaphysics?
>A theory of reality.
>
>What is the Metaphysics of Quality?
>The theory that reality is awareness, the ultimate good.
>
>Why does Pirsig say reality is awareness?
>Because without awareness reality wouldn't exist.
>
>Why does Pirsig say reality is the ultimate good?
>Because we can conceive of nothing better than awareness.
>
>What is the Quality Event?
>The event that creates our level of reality from awareness.
>
>What is Dynamic Quality?
>Pure awareness, uncontaminated by thought.
>
>Is Dynamic Quality another word for God?
>If you mean by God the ultimate good, yes.
>
>Then the Bible is right when it says God created Heaven and Earth?
>Yes, as long as you think of God not as a captive of any one religion, but
>as the principle of good.
>
>Is the Metaphysics of Quality a religion?
>No. Religion is a static pattern of Social Quality. (See below.)
>
>How does morality fit into the Metaphysics of Quality?
>Morality is another name for Quality.
>
>Does that mean that reality is moral?
>Yes.
>
>Isn't morality about how people behave?
>Yes, but also about how everything in the universe behaves.
>
>What is Static Quality?
>The evolution of awareness in the universe, stabilized into patterns.
>
>What are the levels of Static Quality?
>Inorganic, Biological, Social and Intellectual.
>
>What is Inorganic Quality?
>Patterns of physical matter.
>
>What is Biological Quality?
>Patterns of life.
>
>What is Social Quality?
>Patterns of culture.
>
>What is Intellectual Quality?
>Patterns of thought.
>
>Are you saying that patterns of matter are aware?
>Yes.
>
>How can anyone believe that?
>If humans are aware, and humans are composed of particles, it follows that
>particles are aware too.
>
>What is the evidence?
>Quantum physics sees particles as events requiring the presence of
>awareness.
>
>What exactly are values?
>Whatever is good.
>
>Who determines what is good?
>Each level determines its own good.
>
>What is the highest good?
>Freedom from all static patterns.
>
>How do you know that?
>Freedom is the driving force of evolution.
>
>How can anyone believe that?
>Each evolutionary level contains more freedom of action and greater
>awareness than the level below it.
>
>How do the different levels relate to each other?
>They fight each other for dominance.
>
>Why?
>Each level considers itself better than other levels.
>
>Are higher levels better than those below it?
>Yes.
>
>So it's moral for a higher level to dominate a lower level?
>Yes, but in doing so it has to be careful not to weaken or destroy the
>lower level.
>
>Why?
>Because a higher level depends on the lower for its existence.
>
>How come different people have different ideas about what is good?
>Each person has a different pattern of life history.
>
>Why did Pirsig say Lila had Quality?
>He didn't say she had Quality He said Quality had her. Each of us is
>possessed by the patterns of Quality. Your collection of patterns is the
>unique set that defines you.
>
>How is Dynamic Quality expressed in each level?
>In the Inorganic level, it's expressed as light, in the Biological level as
>birth, in the Social level as play, in the Intellectual level as art.
>
>What is Subject-Object Metaphysics (SOM)?
>The theory that the world contains nothing but subjects (mind) and objects
>(matter).
>
>What is wrong with SOM?
>It considers its highest value, objectivity, to be valueless (amoral).
>
>Why is the MoQ better than SOM?
>It explains values and solves the mind-matter problem.
>
>What is the mind-matter problem?
>How can matter generate thought.
>
>How does the MoQ solve the mind-matter problem?
>Quality, the creative source of all things, is neither mind nor matter but
>a distinct category of its own.
>
>If the world is composed of moral values or goodness why is there so much
>suffering in the world?
>Suffering is caused by battles for dominance between and within value
>levels. When someone dies, Biological patterns lose the battle to Inorganic
>patterns. But Biological patterns win in the end because life goes on.
>
>Is Quality the same worldwide and in all cultures?
>Yes. Every culture relies on patterns of social quality to survive. The
>patterns themselves, however, are often different from culture to culture.
>
>Is Quality goal seeking?
>Yes. Each level has succeeded in attaining more freedom than the previous
>level.
>
>Is Quality purposeful?
>Yes. It's purpose is to be free of all static patterns.
>
>Is Quality self-regulating?
>Quality is not a "self" -- an object. It is distinct from subjects and
>objects, but not separate. It pervades everything.
>
>Does the level of Quality rise as it raises the level of static quality?
>To the degree that each subsequent level has more freedom, it has more
>Quality.
>
>What does the MoQ say about religion?
>Religion is a static social value pattern that has no right to dominate the
>higher intellectual pattern.
>
>What does the MoQ say about art?
>Art attempts to create aesthetic awareness which comes closer to Quality
>than other kinds of awareness such as Social or Intellectual.
>
>What other philosophies are consistent with the MoQ?
>Pirsig credits William James and Alfred North Whitehead as being consistent
>with the MOQ.
>
>What do we need to do to replace SOM with the MOQ?
>Nothing. Awareness of the MoQ will evolve because it explains reality
>better than other philosophies.
>
>Note: You'll find other brief descriptions of the MOQ in "Lila's Child."
>
>Platt
>
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The Universe is uncaused, like a net of jewels in which each is a 
reflection of all the others in a fantastic, interrelated harmony without end.
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