Adventavit asinus, Pulcher et fortissimus.*
Force of Value in the Metaphysics of Qualityby Dan Glover 11/17/98
In his latest book, Lila; An Inquiry into Morals Robert M. Pirsig outlines the Metaphysics of Quality, a continuing effort to view the universe from a Quality point of view. In a previous paper Quality is a Good Dog I explored some relationships between Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality and Carlos Castaneda's teachings of don Juan. In that paper, I make a passing reference to the tonal of don Juan being the social organization of our reality. Here I want to expand on that idea further.
The Metaphysics of Quality divides our reality up into everything that is experienced, static quality, and everything that is not experienced, Dynamic Quality.
Dynamic Quality is a particularly elusive and undefinable "something" which we are unable to perceive directly. Dynamic Quality is un-nameable, for once it is identified, it has become something else and is no longer Dynamic Quality. Since the Metaphysics of Quality is assumed to be an analog of reality and not actual reality, the words Dynamic Quality will represent this undefinable "something" but in no way define it.
We perceive static quality phenomenon only. Static quality is experienced reality which we have formed agreements with. We form patterns of value from patterned reality by association. We are unable to recognize un-patterned reality as experience is a metaphor.
Mr. Pirsig's diagram of the Metaphysics of Quality from his Subject, Objects, Data and Values paper:
The four levels of static reality contain all that we are aware of. In addition, Dynamic Quality, an undefinable "something" permeates and directs these static patterns of value in ways that we can perceive, but not directly.
Perhaps it is worthwhile exploring this thing we call experience or consciousness. In going to my bookshelf and picking up The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind author Julian Jaynes writes:
What you can consciously recall is a thimbleful to the huge oceans of your actual knowledge. Conscious retrospection is not the retrieval of images, but the retrieval of what you have been conscious of before, and the reworking of these elements into rational or plausible patterns. (Page 28)
Conscious retrospection is the consciousness looking back on itself. The manner in which this is accomplished bears some looking at to fully appreciate the complexity of the problem we are dealing with here. In humans, the left and right sides of the brain are separate yet connected by a net of some 2 million fibers. On the left side of the brain (in 95% of us) is the Wernicke's area, responsible for speech patterns. The right side of the brain has a corresponding area which could be capable of speech patterning, but is not, at least in an sense that is fully understood at this moment.
There are three areas in the left hemisphere of the brain that appear most responsible for speech in humans:
The three speech areas of the left hemisphere have different functions and values. The supplementary motor area is mostly involved in articulation; Broca's area in articulation, vocabulary, inflection, and grammar; and Wernicke's area in vocabulary, syntax, meaning, and understanding speech.The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Page 101
Music may also have interesting left and right brain interactions as well, as described in an e-mail from Daniel Ferguson via the Lila Squad:
I'm a drummer...and I strive to not only keep the time and lead the changes and accent important parts, set the dynamic, and define and syncopate the groove, but also to sing. My band is progressing as we are working with a newfound singer (who has a voice superior to my own) :).
RMP's static and dynamic, the bodily dance of playing the drums displays the condition of the human experience:
Being a drummer..the left hand plays ghost notes and accents on the snare. It is the hand that is free to "fiddle around" while the right hand keeps steady on the ride or high hat. In jazz the right hand and right foot basically keep the rhythm all the time...while the left hand joins in with the other instruments, accenting different notes depending on the accompaniment.
My drumset is arranged such that all the fun toys are on the left side of the kit. But I only get to take advantage of the "toys" on special occasions.
(excerpts from Daniel Ferguson's e-mail to the Lila Squad on 11/20/98)
Since there is a crossover mechanism involved, the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body and visa versa. The left brain keeps constant rhythm in jazz as it does in our daily interactions with others. And the right brain is the creative side, Dynamic and always changing. Very intriguing.
Julian Jaynes agrees music and poetry are contained in right hemisphere areas of the brain. He writes:
...song, as we are presently discovering, is primarily a function of the right cerebral hemisphere. The evidence is various but consistent:
It is common medical knowledge that many elderly patients who have suffered cerebral hemorrhages on the left hemisphere such that they cannot speak can still sing.
The so-called Wada Test is sometimes performed in hospitals to find out a person's cerebral dominance. Sodium amytal is injected into the carotid artery on one side, putting the corresponding hemisphere under heavy sedation but leaving the other awake and alert. When the injection is made on the left side os that the right hemisphere is active, the person is unable to speak, but can still sing. When the injection is on the right so that only the left hemisphere is active, the person can speak but cannot sing.
Electric stimulation on the right hemisphere in regions adjacent to the posterior temporal lobe, particularly in the anterior temporal lobe, often produces hallucinations of singing and music. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Page 365
Here is an image of the brain, with Wernicke's area on the left side of the brain and the corresponding area on the right, linked by a bundle of nerve fibers, that all important anterior commissure.
The analog 'I' and the metaphor 'me' are always resting at the confluence of many collective cognitive imperatives. (The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Page 402, by Julian Jaynes)
The Bridge Across Civilization
According to Jaynes, the anterior commissure is the bridge which all civilization has been built on. I am not going to explore that so much as I am interested in finding relationships to Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality. Speech is a social pattern of value in the Metaphysics of Quality. Therefore I would like to equate the left side of the brain to the social level, and the right side of the brain to the intellect. Here the right side is marked as the hallucinatory area, and this is a fascinating area of discovery, but I only mention it in passing here. Rather, I would like to examine for a minute just how experience arises.
Julian Jaynes writes: It all began with a study by Karl Marbe in 1901. The subject was asked to lift two weights in front of him and place the one that was heavier in front of the experimenter, who was facing him. And it came as a startling discovery both to the experimenter himself and to his highly trained subjects, all of them introspective psychologists, that the process of judgment itself was never conscious.
This was the problem as H.J. Watt faced it a few years after Marbe. To solve it, he used a different method, word associations. Nouns printed on cards were shown to the subject, who was to reply by uttering an associate word as quickly as he could. It was not free association, but what is technically called partially constrained: in different series the subject was required to associate to the visual word a super ordinate (e.g., oak-tree), co-ordinate (oak-elm), or subordinate (oak-beam); or a whole (oak-forest), a part (oak-acorn) or another part of a common whole (oak-path).
The nature of this task of constrained associations made it possible to divide the consciousness of it into four periods: the instructions as to which of the constraints it was to be (e.g., super ordinate), the presentation of the stimulus noun (e.g., oak) the search for the appropriate association, and the spoken reply. The introspecting observers were asked to confine themselves first to one period and then to another, and thus get a more accurate account of consciousness in each.
It was expected that the precision of the fractionation method would prove Marbe's conclusions wrong, and that the consciousness of thinking would be found in Watt's third period, the period of the search for the word that would suit the particular constrained association. But nothing of the sort happened. It was the third period that was introspectively blank. What seemed to be happening was that thinking was automatic and not really conscious once a stimulus word had been given, and, previous to that, the particular type of association demanded had been adequately understood by the observer.
This was a remarkable result. Another way of saying it is that one does one's thinking before one knows what one is to think about. The important part of the matter is the instruction, which allows the whole business to go off automatically. This I will shorten to the term "struction", by which I mean it to have the same connotation of both instruction and construction. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Page 39
This is a connecting point between Jaynes and Pirsig. It may be a little difficult to see, and it requires a shifting of perceptions about reality that we are not accustomed to.
What Pirsig calls static quality is not meant to be motionless or permanent in any sense. Rather there are forces of value at work which are continually instructing and constructing these static quality patterns of value, which Pirsig has divided into four levels...the Inorganic, Biological, Social and Intellect.
Pirsig describes forces of value like this:
What, after all, is the likelihood that an atom possesses within its own structure enough information to build the city of New York? Biological and social and intellectual patterns are not the possession of substance. The laws that create and destroy these patterns are not the laws of electrons and protons, and other elementary particles. The forces that create and destroy these patterns are the forces of value. Lila, Page 178
It seems as though a society that is intolerant of all forms of degeneracy shuts off its own Dynamic growth and becomes static. But a society that tolerates all forms of degeneracy degenerates. Either direction can be dangerous...do you tell the saviors from the degenerates? Particularly when they look alike, talk alike and break all the rules alike? Freedoms that save the saviors also save the degenerates and allow them to tear the whole society apart. But restrictions that stop the degenerates also stop the creative Dynamic forces of evolution. Lila, pp. 223-4
[Note: I am not aware of any other mention of "forces of value" in Lila. If anyone has noticed it, drop me an e-mail and let me know. Thanks!]
Update: Platt from the Lila Squad sent these two passages he found in Lila:
Its [Dynamic Quality's]only perceived good is freedom and its only perceived evil is static quality itself--any pattern of one-sided fixed values that tries to contain the ongoing free force of life. (Chap. 9 p. 133 Bantam soft cover edition.)
But the Metaphysics of Quality also says that Dynamic quality--the value force that chooses and elegant mathematical solution to a laborious one, or a brilliant experiment over a confusing, inconclusive one--is another matter altogether. (Chap. 29 p. 418)
Thank you Platt! A further update 12/21/98:
In re reading Lila I came across this passage from chapter 11: What
Dynamic force had to invent in order to move up the molecular level and
stay there was a carbon molecule that would preserve its limited Dynamic
freedom from inorganic laws and at the same time resist deterioration back
to simple compounds of carbon again. A study of nature shows the Dynamic
force was not able to do this but got around the problem by inventing two
molecules: a static molecule able to resist abrasion, heat, chemical attack
and the like; and a Dynamic one, able to preserve the subatomic indeterminacy
at a molecular level and "try everything" in ways of chemical combination.
Page 169
According to the Metaphysics of Quality, the intellect is the highest quality static pattern of value. Using that clue, in the word-association experiment above, the third "blank" period must be the intellect at work. The instruction is a social process, as is the presentation. The search for association in the third period is the intellect level at work, yet it is blank. Forces of value are at work that are unpatterned and yet constrained and funneled into perceptions of what we already know.
The spoken reply is again a social process, a result of the blank third period but not the intellect itself at work directly. Rather what has been constructed is a social pattern of value from a stimulus of another pattern of value after the previously held notion has been destroyed by the intellect. The construction is not done through any feature of the intellect. That level is blank. New patterns arise from the social level once the previously existing pattern has been dis-created.
It is that third period of blankness that has no value in the experiment until we use the Metaphysics of Quality to examine it. Along the way, this also may provide some clues as to just what functions the social and intellect forces of value have. If we look at that blank third level as an unpatterned de-matching, or de-structed value, and equate that to Pirsig's force of value as a dis-creation, we can then assign creation force of value to the social level and dis-creation force of value to the intellect.
Looking at the problem this way, the Metaphysics of Quality tells us that we experience reality exclusively through the social level. The role of the intellect is to dis-create, or de-struct social patterns of value to enable new associated social patterns of value to be con-structed. The intellect level is always of higher moral value than static quality social patterns of value, and force of value moves these static social patterns into dis-creation so that new and better ones may arise in the old ones place.
This also jells with Carlos Castaneda's writings when don Juan tells
him:
"Today is not the day of the nagual, today is the day of the tonal. I put on my suit today because I am all tonal," he said.In order to simplify the notion, I will use Jaynes term "struction" to denote this action from a Metaphysics of Quality point of view and trust it is very close to how Jaynes intends. In Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, the inorganic and biological levels compose objects, while the social and intellect levels are the subjective side of reality.He stared at me. I was about to tell him that the subject was proving to be more difficult than anything he had ever explained to me; he seemed to have anticipated my words.
"It is difficult", he continued, "I know it. But considering that this is the final lid, the last stage of what I have been teaching you, it is not too farfetched to say that it envelops everything I have mentioned since the day we first met."
I raised a point. I said that when he talked about the "tonal" and the "nagual" it sounded as if there was still a third part. He had said that the "tonal" forces us to perform acts. I asked him to tell me who he was referring to as being forced.
He did not answer me directly. "I am using your words now," he said. "The tonal is the social person." ( Tales of Power )
Keeping that in mind, I want to envision each as a struction, in both a state of creation and discreation as forces of value effect the patterned value of each level in different ways, causing moral conflicts to arise. This is taking us farther away from subjective/objective thinking into a realm where it no longer matters which is which. What matters are the Forces of Value at work dis-creating old patterns so new ones may be created.
The force of value at the inorganic level seems to be de-struction, discreation, an unpatterned unconceptualizable idea we can only envision by analogy. The biological level is at odds with this level and is a con-struction, or creation, and yet nothing lives forever. There must be some de-struction built into that level. The social level is also a con-struction, and it is this level that regulates everything the biological life-form does. This is don Juan's tonal. The intellect level's purpose is to free the social restraints, to overthrow the tonal so to speak. The highest morality results from de-struction of social patterns of value by the intellect.
I want to introduce a tentative labeling of Force of Value within each
level. I received an intriguing e-mail from my friend Bodvar Skutvic concerning
an e-mail he received from Craciun Madalin George with a set of equations
contained within. I have taken the liberty of changing them slightly and
using them to label the four levels of the Metaphysics of Quality. Please
remember this is very tentative and new.
|
|
Represents Dynamic Quality Force of Value |
|
|
Intellect Force of Value |
|
|
Social Force of Value |
|
|
Biological Force of Value |
|
|
Inorganic Force of Value |
| Symbol "-" = negative = changes any subject. |
| Symbol "+" = positive = keeps the subject = doesn't change the subject. |
The social level is creation directed in both dominate and dominated patterns, indicated by the (+ +) symbols. The intellect level is discreation directed. These two levels make up the subjective struction. Using a vertical and horizontal grid, as suggested by Roger Parker via the Lila Squad, I have attempted to place moral values in a sequence for better understanding. This is from a static quality point of view.
MORALITY'S FORCE OF VALUE
[Diagram by Roger Parker, revisions by glove]
| Dominant Value: Highest Moral Value---moving to Dynamic Freedom--} |
|
|
Computer virus | Clinton-like | Artist | Brujo/Saint |
|
|
Computer-House | Criminal | Government | Love-War |
|
|
Nutrition | Life | Family | Isolationism |
|
|
Electricity | Death | Family | Freedom-Chaos |
| Dominated--} | Inorganic ( - ) | Biological ( - ) | Social ( + ) | Intellect ( - ) |
| Lowest Moral Force of Value----------moving to Dynamic freedom---} |
Value forces in the Metaphysics of Quality do not change the static patterns of value in a instantaneous or certain way, but rather it is responsible for guiding them, directing them so to speak. Force of Value could be thought of as the breath of reality. Planck's constant and the Lamb shift come into play here.
Recognizing force of value within the Metaphysics of Quality allows an expanded awareness to develop of the interactions and moral implications. Like the Buddhist Wheel of Life, our reality is continually con-structing and de-structing itself through these forces of value.
In the table above, I have attempted to identify some of the contributing Forces of Value in a context of everyday reality. Some may disagree with my placements of certain things like love/war, but overall I think it is a Good way to see how Forces of Value direct our lives in every conceivable way. Rather than looking at the four static quality levels as permanent, they must be seen as in a continual state of creation and discreation, not necessarily in that order.
In the upper right-hand corner of the chart is Brujo/Saint. Because this realm is completely de-latched, viewing it from the social level as we do it is difficult to understand the higher moral value contained in the intellect level patterns of value.
It could be said that the Brujo/Saint have transcended the self and in doing so have left the "real" world behind in a very real way. Static quality patterns of value arise through our consciousness by means of static latching at the social level.
We can see how these patterns arise in the way we perceive reality.
Look at the two faces below. Which face is happier?
These faces are mirror images of each other. Look at the noses of each. Which face is the happy face? Julian Jaynes writes:
We definitely know that there are specific areas of the brain that are inhibitory to others, that the brain in a very general way is always in a kind of complicated tension (or balance) between excitation and inhibition, and also that inhibition can occur in a number of different ways. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Page 428
This tension seems to be between the left hemisphere, associated with social level patterns of value, with the right hemisphere, associated with intellect patterns of value. The left hemisphere is directed by the static latching creative Force of Value, while the right hemisphere is directed by discreative de-latching Force of Value.
For those interested in further reading, here are some excerpts from recent Lila Squad e-mail concerning the subject.
This is an ongoing paper and I will add to it as time permits. Thank you for reading, and any comments are appreciated.
This page has been visited times.
Last updated 12/21/98
Quality is a good dog: Pirsig/Castaneda Paper
The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance; A New Science of Life A review of Rupert Sheldrake's book
The Philosophy of Niels Bohr; The Framework of Complementarity A look back on the early days of quantum theory
A Tesla Project
