[MD] Philosophy is deadly

[david buchanan]

dmb said:
And then there is that bit in the MOQ where the laws of causality are replaced by patterns of preference. Causal relations is a useful idea, but it's just that: an idea. But we can just as well conceptualize the same experience and the same laboratory data in terms of preferences. 


Andre supplied a page number for that bit:

.... Pirsig suggested to 'strike 'cause' from the language and substitute 'value' [then] you are not only replacing an empirically meaningless term with a meaningful one; you are using a term that is more appropriate to actual observation'. (LILA, p. 107)


dmb says:

Thanks, Andre, I was looking for that passage. (It's on page 104 in my edition.) Here's the full paragraph:

"The only difference between causation and value is that the word 'cause' implies absolute certainty whereas the implied meaning of 'value' is one of preference. In classical science it was supposed that the world always works in terms of absolute certainty and that 'cause' is the more appropriate word to describe it. But in modern quantum physics all that is changed. Particles 'prefer' to do what they do. An individual particle is not absolutely committed to one predictable behavior. What appears to be an absolute cause is just a very consistent pattern of preferences. Therefore, when you strike 'cause' from the language and substitute 'value' you are not only replacing an empirically meaningless term with a meaningful one; you are using a term that is more appropriate to actual observation."