[MD] Protestant Capitalism

[Ham Priday]

Platt --

 > Hey Ham,
>
> Given that the MOQ is quite clear that the top two tiers in the
> hierarchy are man made in response to Dynamic Quality I can't
> say the scenario is inhuman.  Am I missing your point?

Apparently you are.  "Man made in response to Dynamic Quality" is 
unintelligible to me.  Is it supposed to mean that DQ "creates" man?  If so, 
whose "response" accounts for the creation?

The point you are missing is one that you yourself called to my attention 
years ago: "The individual is the cognizant locus of the physical universe." 
This conscious locus is not society or its collective "intellect", as Pirsig 
would have it.  It's not "a collection of inorganic and biological 
patterns," either.  Rather, it's the subjective awareness of the individual 
"knower".  And it "exists" in relation to its experience of value as finite 
beingness (objects).

A hierarchy made up of physical and behavioral atttributes has no sentient 
locus, thus cannot "be aware" or "have experience".  Only an individual 
agent can do that.  That's what being-aware is.  All sentient organisms 
represent a fusion of two primary existential essents: Sensibility and 
Beingness.  Human being is unique in its sensibility to value 
(self-awareness) and its capacity to reason (intellect).  These attributes 
are not distributed throughout the universe as an extracorporeal realm or 
level but exist only as individuated psycho-organic entities.  It is this 
individuation that makes possible the realization (and objectivization) of 
value (i.e., Quality) by a free agent.

As I've said before, the evolutionary hierarchy is flawed on two counts.  It 
assumes that value (quality) exists independently of sensibility, and it 
denies subjectivity. This is epistemologically unsound.  The hierarchy is 
"inhuman" in the sense that it denies value-sensibility as the essence of 
man.  Because it also fails to posit a primary (metaphysical) source for 
existence, Pirsig's thesis is limited to causal explanations of process in 
time.

I know this won't satisfy you, Platt.  But it should at least help you 
understand what I consider to be the MoQ's shortcomings.

Best regards,
Ham