[MD] The strong interpretation of the MOQ (SIM)

[skutvik at online.no]

Mary, Arlo, All.

Arlo had said:
> > What focus on "THE" does is trap the conversation in "who speaks for THE
> > metaphysics of Quality?" rather than "whose ideas are better?" And not
> > only that, it leads to absurdity after absurdity. I mean, you don't
> > really want to support an "argument" that says "Pirsig is a weak
> > interpreter of Pirsig"? Do you? Because since he denies he wrote
> > anything in his books that would lead to that conclusion, that is what
> > he becomes. Too dumb to understand what he himself was saying, and part
> > of the "weak interpreter" camp that promtes a "dead MOQ" (whatever that
> > means).

Bodvar comments: 
The "THE" issue is artificial, we all know that it is our respective 
opinions we express, but can't put IMOs and IMHOs in front of - or 
after - each sentence. 
 
Mary replied:
> Here is what Pirsig says.

    ZMM Chapter 16: Phædrus¢ second metaphysical phase was 
    a total disaster. Before the electrodes were attached to his 
    head he¢d lost everything tangible: money, property, children; 
    even his rights as a citizen had been taken away from him by 
    order of the court. All he had left was his one crazy lone dream 
    of Quality, a map of a route across the mountain, for which he 
    had sacrificed everything. Then, after the electrodes were 
    attached, he lost that. I will never know all that was in his head 
    at that time, nor will anyone else. What¢s left now is just 
    fragments: debris, scattered notes, which can be pieced 
    together but which leave huge areas unexplained. When I first 
    discovered this debris I felt like some agricultural peasant near 
    the outskirts of, say, Athens, who occasionally and without 
    much surprise plows up stones that have strange designs on 
    them. I knew that these were part of some larger overall 
    design that had existed in the past, but it was far beyond my 
    comprehension. ... It is probably a long way from what he 
    thought. When trying to recreate a whole pattern by deduction 
    from fragments I am bound to commit errors and put down 
    inconsistencies, for which I must ask some indulgence. In 
    many cases the fragments are ambiguous; a number of 
    different conclusions could be drawn. If something is wrong 
    there¢s a good chance that the error isn¢t in what he thought 
    but in my reconstruction of it, and a better reconstruction can 
    later be found.  

Bodvar comments:
Thanks Mary for finding this, it pertains to a most sensitive point that 
we have touched on from time to time, but have left quickly:  Pirsig 
may not be the most trustworthy witness about what Phaedrus' ideas 
were and may explain why his presentation varies so wildly between 
ZAMM where he equalizes SOM with "intellect", to LILA where MOQ's 
4th. level is a bland no-one-knows-what thing. The initial equation is 
radical beyond anything hitherto conceived and Phaedrus must have 
felt alienated and scared over what genie he had let out of its bottle. 
This combined with the immense pressure he exposed himself to 
when attending the philosophy course while teaching at the Navy Pier 
University. Anyway he was treated with the electrical equivalent of 
lobotomy and his "hard-disk" was partially erased. What I believe Mary 
means and this quote says is that the post hospital author of ZAMM 
found big and small pieces of Phaedrus' written material whereby he 
reconstructed the Quality Idea to the point he believed was as close to 
the original, and this contains the "Genie" - the Intellect = SOM -  but 
when starting on LILA (further removed from Phaedrus in the time) the 
Quality= Reality issue took precedence and the erroneous conviction 
formed that if this could be proved "mission was accomplished" - MOQ 
just an arbitrary ordering of Quality. But - alas - the Quality=Reality is 
an axiom, it cannot be proved the proof is what reality the DQ/SQ 
constellation creates (plus the static levels with the former 
Subject/Object constellation the top level)  AND THAT IS A 
FABULOUS REALITY! 

Again thanks Mary, but also thanks to Arlo, this was a "fair" approach 
to the issue.

Bodvar