[MD] Intellectual Level

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Mary replies]
But after two points of agreement, we diverge, for it is far from a "fools
quest" and is in fact, exactly what the MoQ does.  Pirsig clearly asserts that
the Metaphysics of Quality blows away all the paradoxes, and while doing so
makes it equally clear that the intellectual level (symbol manipulation) is the
cause of them in the first place:

[Arlo]
First, he makes it clear that SOM, NOT the intellectual level, is the cause of
the paradoxes he mentions. The primary one being that a metaphysical system is
PART of the reality it describes. 

As one example he talks about a metaphysics that proposes the world is
comprised of subjects and objects, but then thinks that it itself is neither of
these. That is, a metaphysics that says the world is comprised of nothing but
subjects and objects must itself be either a subject or any object. 

The same holds true of the MOQ. A metaphysics that proposes that the world is
comprised of Dynamic Quality and static quality must itself be either DQ or SQ.
Furthermore, a metaphysics that says that ALL SQ can be described as I/B/S/I
must itself be one of these. It is a fallacy of S/O thinking to propose that a
metaphysics is NOT part, or OUTSIDE, of the reality it describes.

This is the kernal of insight that led to Goedel's famous theorums, and the
basic realization that ALL symbolic systems are inherently self-referential
(once they attain enough complexity to provide meaning). 

What Pirsig does is not "blow away the paradoxes", but shows that attempts to
"blow them away" is the S/O mindset in the first place. Instead, he embraces a
Zen core, a spiritual rationality that answers paradox with "mu", the
acceptance that there will always be paradox precisely because the ANY symbolic
representation of reality (such as the MOQ) will always be self-referential,
incomplete and an analogy.

Yes, the MOQ provides much better explanatory value than SOM patterns. It
answers many of the questions SOM can't. But just because "calculus" provides
more explanatory power than "geometry" doesn't make it exempt from Goedels
basic realizations.