For those unfamilar with the Metaphysics of Quality as advanced in Pirsig's book Lila, the notion of a universe driven by quality may seem a bit foreign. Most of us have been taught subject/object metaphysics as a way of reality all our lives. We believe that the objects we can reach out and touch are real. There is no doubt in our minds about that. And then here come the quantum physicists telling us that matter is basically made up of nothing!

We say, YEAH, RIGHT! How can we reconcile that within the structure of our 'real' reality? Its impossible. What Pirsig says is this...instead of reality being real because it really is, it is real because we value realness. We need it to function in the way we function, as social and intellectual animals intertwined unextrictably with our environment. We learn to value certain choices over other ones, and we value them instinctively as well.

In Pirsig's MoQ, all of reality can be broken into a four-ness. There is the inorganic layer, containing all the elemental particles in the universe. Next is the layer of life, the biological layer, which contains all living organisms in the universe. This layer subjegates the lower inorganic layer, makes a slave of it. But it does it by valueing certain elements over others...the carbon atom for example.

The carbon atom is what all life forms are based on. There are other elements close to carbon which also seem capable of evolving into life, but for some reason, only carbon does. Atoms link up with other atoms by tieing together loose ends, in a simple way of speaking. Carbon has the most of these loose ends, which enables it to tie into complex molecules which in turn are used by the biological layer to create life.

The third layer in MoQ is the social layer. This layer contains all social structures...families, governments, learning institutions, and so on. This layer values certain loose ends from the biological layer as well. According to conventional evolution, this layer evolved slowly over time, but what MoQ tells us is that it didn't really evolve at all. Society is here because we value it. Families tie people together, villages tie families together, villages tie cities together, and so on, and all do it because of value. By banding together we create society, which immediately makes slaves of the individual biological creatures.

We are all too often trapped into low value situations because we fail to see value in the first place and we make the wrong choices. By examining the universe and its values, we can make different choices which may lead us to a higher value situation. This is the fourth layer in Pirsig's MoQ...the intellect layer. This layer is not within the mind, it is a collective knowledge which flows to us by virtue, or by Quality. We value it and so we make a slave of society with it.

In this way, all four layers are working together and none can exist without the other. All layers operate in an outward motion, as shown in my MoQ wimple diagram. Additionally, time acts as a causal event within the model precessing outwards as well, and so Dynamic Quality is precessional in nature. By noticing how quality works in this model, we can begin to see how it works in 'real' reality.

MoQ is not a completely different metaphysics from Subject/Object metaphysics, it is more expansive. It not only explains reality in more precise terms, it also includes the mystic viewpoint of reality within its very shell, as my Mystic Reality page shows very clearly.

If you have not read Lila yet, I hope these pages will in some small way inspire you to it. It is perhaps the most compelling philosophical work I have ever read, and believe me, I have read whole encyclopedias of philosophy...most of it just someone wanting to see themselves in print and saying nothing of any real value to humanity. And if you read it, you will find within this fiction novel, lurking in the undergrowth and just daring you to look at it, is a most intriguing and enlightening MoQ.

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