[MD] [MD} The relativity of the MoQ
MarshaV
valkyr at att.net
Fri Aug 28 01:59:26 PDT 2009
Hello Ham,
There is a coming together. I might state it as we seem to be 'value
sensibility' created from a combination of habit (sq) and spontaneous
response (DQ). I worry a little about the word sensibility because it seems
too much taking in and not enough response.
Marsha
-----Original Message-----
From: moq_discuss-bounces at lists.moqtalk.org
[mailto:moq_discuss-bounces at lists.moqtalk.org] On Behalf Of Ham Priday
Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 2:05 AM
To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
Subject: Re: [MD] [MD} The relativity of the MoQ
Ron, Marsha, Steve, and All --
Ron asks:
> Why choose one pattern over another?
> Why does one pattern have more meaning than another?
Marsha wonders:
> Why would one pattern be chosen over another? ...
> Even the notion that there is an 'I' doing the choosing
> is a pattern. No truth there either...
Steve muses:
> Pragmatists can only say something as vague as:
> Better in the sense of containing more of what is good
> and less of what is bad. When asked, 'And exactly what
> do you consider good?', pragmatists can only say with
> Whitman 'variety and freedom,' or with Dewey, 'growth.'
It is certainly true that existence is relative. And since normal people
accept the fact that existence is divided up into finite objects by
cognizant subjects, the part of the MoQ that has been misnamed "SOM" must
also be relative. But that's not where relativity stops.
What is "good" is what is valued in the subject's experience. This goodness
can be defined in three ways: 1) what feels good, 2) what works well, and 3)
what makes sense insofar as the subject apprehends it. While 1 and 3 are
relative to the subject; 2 is utilitarian value which relates to mankind
universally. In other words, Value is relative to the observer.
Now, each of us has a set of values that affects our worldviews differently.
Steve and Ron may spot a demure young woman standing on the sidewalk, while
Marsha is attracted to a Picasso painting displayed in the shop window
beyond. Will and Marsha may look for poetry to please their senses, while
Platt is drawn to the beauty of a sunset, I to a Mendelssohn string quartet,
and so on. We each see the world through glasses of a different valuistic
hue. Yet, objectively, the world is the same for all of us.
There has to be difference so that our individual perspectives can be
different. (That's why Collectivism doesn't work in philosophy or
economics. Vive la Différence!) Difference starts with the separation of
sensible awareness from what Cusanus called "the Not-other" to create the
appearance of "otherness". It is that appearance which we call our
existence. We view (i.e., experience) the world as pleasurable, beautiful,
moral, evil, or hopeless, depending on our value-sensibility. It is
universal and personal at the same time, because we are Nature's beings as
well as individuated selves. Essentially, however, we are no more than the
values we seek to reclaim from the undivided Source. To put it another way,
we are the created, value-receptive "other" side of the uncreated Not-other.
I've never described my epistemology in just that way before. The idea came
to me while researching collectivist ideology as the bane of a secular
culture. I hope it can shed some light on your ruminations.
Essentially yours,
Ham
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