[MD] The Dynamics of Value

[Ham Priday]

Hi David --

On Thurs, March 03, 2011 at 9:34 PM, David Buchanan 
<dmbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Ham said to Mark:
> Where is the Quality when you're not pointing?  Nowhere.
> What happens to Quality when there is nothing to point to,
> or when there is no one to point?  It disappears.  Quality exists
> only as a comparative evaluation by a sensible agent.  In short,
> it's a "comparative" interpretation of relational experience.
>
> dmb says:
> Excuse me for butting in.
> The notion that quality is subjective, the evaluative judgement
> of a sensible subject, is not consistent with the MOQ. Instead,
> every part of reality behaves and acts on the basis of Quality.
> In that sense, atoms, stars, fishes and dogs are agents pointing to
> Quality. As James says, "everything gets known by some knower".
> We're talking about a reality that is entirely noetic, but it is not a
> single unified consciousness like Hegel's God but rather it is
> pluralistic, layered, "irreducibly many", "strung along and overlapped".
> Everything gets known by some knower. It's Quality all the way down.
> If you're interested.

Yes, I'm quite aware of the Quality thesis, Dave.  I just don't accept it as 
logical for the reasons I've explained to Mark and John.  The adage that 
"everything gets known by some knower" has a poetic ring to it that makes us 
feel good, but it's without epistemological foundation.  Quality is a 
euphemism for Value or Virtue, both of which are relative judgments.  Even 
if Mr. Pirsig had postulated Quality as the first cause, a "pluralistic, 
multi-layered, overlapped" comparative doesn't pass muster as a primary 
source.

While it's nice to imagine our world as Quality incarnate, the truth is that 
quality would not be recognized in such a world.  I agree that Value 
(Quality) plays a significant noetic role in ontology; but it is derived 
from Essence rather than the cosmos.  And without realization by a 
"sensible" agent, it is meaningless.

Essentially speaking,
Ham