[MD] Freewill

[Horse]

Hi Folks

A couple of things that need to be cleared up in relation to free will 
as I see it:

1) In a reality in which everything is a moral activity (MoQ) any act is 
a moral act - so we can't help but act morally according to the MoQ. The 
argument which requires free will in order to act morally would appear 
to be irrelevant - we can't help but act morally regardless of the 
existence of free will.

"The Metaphysics of Quality says that if moral judgements are 
essentially assertions of value and if value is the fundamental 
ground-stuff of the world, then moral judgements are the fundamental 
ground-stuff of the world......
.....So what Phædrus was saying was that not just life, but everything, 
is an ethical activity. It is nothing else. When inorganic patterns of 
reality create life the Metaphysics of Quality postulates that they’ve 
done so because it’s “better” and that this definition of 
“betterness”—this beginning response to Dynamic Quality—is an elementary 
unit of ethics upon which all right and wrong can be based."

How does throwing free will into the mix make any difference to inherent 
moral behaviour as a pre-requisite of existence? Or is the MoQ wrong 
when it states that existence is a moral order?

2) There seems to have been a tendency recently to equate free will with 
DQ. Equating (or more accurately conflating) the two in this way is a 
mistake - in my opinion - as it tends to 
intellectualise/compartmentalise DQ. Which is always a mistake.

3) The degree to which we are free to act - i.e. have the greatest 
choice - increases as we move up the static value hierarchy but still 
doesn't appear to be completely free. Statically, we can only choose 
between those patterns that already exist - i.e. we can have a 
PRE-ference for a PRE-existing static pattern. If we choose not to 
prefer an existing pattern and instead opt for a new pattern of our own 
creation then we are following DQ. Opting for another's creation is 
certainly not following DQ.
I think this ties in with what Pirsig says re:SQ/DQ and behaviour:

"In the Metaphysics of Quality this dilemma doesn’t come up. To the 
extent that one’s behavior is controlled by static patterns of quality 
it is without choice. But to the extent that one follows Dynamic 
Quality, which is undefinable, one’s behavior is free."

I think we need to come up with a better way of expressing the idea of 
free will cos at the moment it just doesn't seem to be getting too far.

Horse

-- 

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
— Frank Zappa