[MD] The Dynamics of Value

[Ham Priday]

Greetings All --

For those of you who may be as tired of the Teabag dispute as I am, I'd like 
to offer some thoughts about Value that, as far as I know, are original with 
me.  After all, Mr. Pirsig equated his Quality with Value and, like the MoQ, 
my philosophy of Essence is a valuistic ontology.  I also think most people 
are more interested in exploring the "real world" applications of philosophy 
than pondering theories of a metaphysical nature.

If Pirsig's statement that "experience is the cutting edge of reality" is to 
be taken literally, it means that existential reality is in some sense 
"sculpted" or delineated by our experience of it.  While the MDers seem tied 
to the "interrelating patterns" concept of experienced objects, largely 
because it was the author's term, we need a better understanding of how 
Quality (Value) is involved in the creation process -- that is, how Value 
works to shape our experience of existence.

A theory that purports to explain the nature and limits of cognitive 
knowledge is generally classified as "epistemology", and my explanation 
differs a bit from the MoQ in that I don't regard Value as "primary 
experience".  Were we capable of experiencing Value directly we not be 
cognizant of a pluralistic world where things arise, interact, and disappear 
in sequential fashion, nor would we view our selves as entities separated 
from these objective phenomena.  Instead, I define the subjective "self" as 
individualized value-sensibility, and consider all experience secondary to 
this innate human sensibiity.

My epistemology makes Value the essence of selfness, rather than something 
we connect with or "latch onto" in an external world.  Our experience of 
things and events "outside us" is a cognitive interpretation of 
value-sensibility perceived from neuro-sensory data.  As with other physical 
objects, the biological body with which we each identify and which is our 
"instrument" of awareness, is a "creation" of value-sensibility.  So that 
what we call "the real world" is actually a synthesis of sensory experience, 
nothingness (or negation), and intellection which would not be possible 
without our pre-intellectual realization of Value.

Notice that this modification of Pirsig's thesis does not alter the 
existential "primacy" of Value (Quality), nor does it posit subjects and 
objects as "real" in the metaphysical sense.  It does, however, replace the 
notion of a universe constantly "moving to betterness" with an ultimate, 
absolute and immutable Source which I call Essence and whose Value is 
uniquely man's realization.

If anyone here is interested in exploring this ontogeny with me, I will be 
most happy to oblige.

Essentially yours,
Ham