[MD] Is this the inadequacy of the MOQ?

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Tim,

When I was first trying to wrap my mind about around what Pirsig was
getting at in Lila, I wish I had known what Pirsig thought was the
biggest improvement that he could make on it. He wrote this in his
introduction to Lila's Child:


"...the biggest improvement I could make in the Metaphysics of Quality
would be to block the notion that the Metaphysics of Quality claims to
be a quick fix for every moral problem in the universe. I have never
seen it that way. The image in my mind as I wrote it was of a large
football field that gave meaning to the game by telling you who was on
the 20-yard line but did not decide which team would win. That was the
point of the two opposing arguments over the death penalty described
in LILA.That was the point of the equilibrium between static and
Dynamic Quality. Both are moral arguments. Both can claim the
Metaphysics of Quality for support. Just as two sides can go before
the U.S. Supreme Court and both claim constitutionality, so two sides
can use the Metaphysics of Quality, but that does not mean that either
the Constitution or the Metaphysics of Quality is a meaningless set of
ideas. Our whole judicial system rests on the presumption that more
than one set of conclusions about individual cases can be drawn within
a given set of moral rules. The Metaphysics of Quality makes the same
presumption. "


Good luck,
Steve