[MD] The Quality of Freedom

[Ham Priday]

On 12/6/09 6:31 PM, "Joseph Maurer" <jhmau at sbcglobal.net> wrote:


> DQ/SQ  Imho this is the great contribution Pirsig has made with
> his emphasis on Quality.  Undefined Quality DQ is not the same
> as a non-existent quality, or quantified, localized, or objectively
> observed entity. Substitute Love for Consciousness (sensibility).
> Will you acknowledge the absence of "quantified, localized, or
> objectively observed" does not modify love (consciousness)
> sufficiently to eliminate it?

I suspect you may be confused by my terminology.  "Reality" in my vernacular 
connotes what REALLY (ultimately) IS.  "Existence" is that which only 
appears to be, and 'existents' are the finite beings we experience.

Certainly I'm not proposing to "eliminate" either love or consciousness. 
Nor do I deny that conscious feelings of love, compassion, admiration, and 
awe influence our behavior as human beings.  I just don't categorize Value 
(Quality) or the emotional responses it engenders as 'existents'.

Don't you see that by positing 'essents' as primary to existents I am 
actually raising human Sensibility above the existential (illusionary) 
level?

Regards,
Ham


> Consciousness (sensibility) is not an 'existent'; that is,
> it cannot be quantified, localized, or objectively observed.
> For that reason, I prefer the term "essent" to designate
> derivatives of Essence which are non-existent in the
> traditional sense, such as Awareness, Value, and
> Nothingness.  As a phenomenalist, I also regard existence
> in its totality (the cosmos) to be the product of
> ("actualized by") experience.  Speaking metaphysically,
> essents are primary to existents which are actualized from
> Essential Value.  Actualization is secondary to creation,
> which means that in my ontogeny there is only one Creation
> - the negation of differentiated existence from Absolute Essence.
>
> In other words, the time/space dynamics of evolution and the
> existential entities that appear to the cognizant observer are
> experiential phenomena. While this ontogeny has little practical
> value for those who put their stock and trade in physical reality,
> I have found it quite useful in understanding metaphysical reality.