[MD] EvO~lution and a VaLue centered metaphysics

[X Acto]

Ron:
The final quote in my arguement against the level structure being
THE MoQ. With THE intellectual level equalling SOM.

"The next platypus to fall is 'substance.' Like 'causation,' 
'substance' is a derived concept, not anything that is directly 
experienced. No one has ever seen substance and no one ever will. 
All people ever see is data. It is assumed that what makes the 
data hang together in consistent patterns is that they inhere 
in this 'substance.' But as John Locke pointed out in the 
seventeenth century, if we ask what this substance is, devoid 
of any properties, we find ourselves thinking of nothing whatsoever. 
The data of quantum physics indicate that what are called 
'subatomic particles' cannot possibly fill the definition of 
a substance. The properties exist, then disappear, then exist, 
and then disappear again in little bundles called 'quanta.' 
These bundles are not continuous in time, yet an essential, 
defined characteristic of 'substance' is that it is continuous 
in time. Since the quantum bundles are not substance and since 
it is a usual scientific assumption that these subatomic 
particles compose everything there is, then it follows that 
there is no substance anywhere in the world nor has there ever 
been. The whole concept is a grand metaphysical illusion. 
In his first book, Phaedrus had railed against the conjuror, 
Aristotle, who invented the term and started it all.
But if there is no substance, it must be asked, then why 
isn't everything chaotic? Why do our experiences act as if 
they inhere in something? If you pick up a glass of water 
why don't the properties of that glass go flying off in 
different directions? What is it that keeps these properties 
uniform if it is not something called substance? That is the 
question that created the concept of substance in the first place.
The answer provided by the Metaphysics of Quality is similar 
to that given for the 'causation' platypus. Strike out the 
word 'substance' wherever it appears and substitute the 
expression 'stable inorganic pattern of value.' Again the 
difference is linguistic. It doesn't make a whit of difference 
in the laboratory which term is used. No dials change their 
readings. The observed laboratory data are exactly the same."

Emphasis for Bo on the part about interpreting the same expereince
two differing ways, SOM and MoQ are two types of intellectual patterns
only SOM is certain that it's way is THE way.

"Again the 
difference is linguistic. It doesn't make a whit of difference 
in the laboratory which term is used. No dials change their 
readings. The observed laboratory data are exactly the same."