[MD] Awareness and consciousness in the MOQ

[Ant McWatt]

Arlo Bensinger stated April 19th:

I think this is your own monkey, Mark. No 
one is suggesting Pirsig's ideas 
are "dogma", but that is hardly the 
same thing as being clear and precise 
about what he did say, and what he
 did not say. As DMB correctly points out,
before one can discern where 
one agrees or disagrees with Pirsig (or any 
other person), one has to 
know what they say. This is a move towards 
clarity, not "dogma".


Mark Smit then responded April 19th:

I grab an apple and cut it in half and give you a choice of halves.
You look at the two halves and choose the one with the higher quality
for you.

Now, what was it that allowed you to make that choice?  What you
perceived was a difference in quality of the two halves.  Therefore
what gave you the choice was not either of the two halves, but their
difference.  So, can you eat this difference?  Is this difference
something you can put in a bag?  No of course not.  So, where does
this difference lie?

Ant McWatt comments:

What happens here if there is no discernable difference?  


Mark Smit continued April 19th:

Additionally, what comes first, the two halves or the difference
between them?  The SOM personality would say that the two halves must
exist first for there to be a difference between them.  However, the
MoQ would say that the difference exists before the two halves.

Ant McWatt comments:

Really Mark?  I don't think it would.  Which part of Pirsig's writings led 
you to that peculiar conclusion?



Mark Smit continued April 19th:

Again, what is the nature of this difference that exists before the
two halves?  Where do you find it?  Well the answer is obvious; you
cannot find it because it does not exist.  Yet, how then does it
create the two halves?  Here the analogy is the knife used to cut the
halves.  There were no two halves before the knife created them.
Likewise, subject and object do not exist before Quality creates them.
 What does Quality create?  It creates qualities of course.  Without
qualities there is nothing (for real).
 
Hope that made some sense.



Ant McWatt comments:

No, it didn't.  I'd suggest you give the apple to your monkey.  :-)

Best wishes,

Ant


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