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Metaphysics Of QualityThe Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) is a theory of reality put forth by Robert M. Pirsig in his novel . 'Quality,' or 'value' as described by Pirsig, cannot be directly defined. Likening it with the Tao, Pirsig believes that Quality is a force in the universe stimulating everything from atoms to animals to evolve and incorporate ever greater levels of Quality. According to the MOQ, everything (including mind, ideas and matter) is a product and a result of Quality. Pirsig began developing his ideas about Quality in his first novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He continued his explorations into Quality and first referred to his ideas as the Metaphysics of Quality in his second novel, , greatly expanding and codifying his ideas. Pirsig, through his study at Benares Hindu University finds the Sanskrit doctrine of Tat tvam asi, ""Thou art that," which asserts that everything you think you are (Subjective) and everything you think you perceive (Objective) are undivided. To realize fully this lack of division is to become enlightened. " The MOQ divides Quality into two forms: Static and Dynamic. Dynamic Quality includes everything not Static, namely, conceptual unknowns. According to Pirsig, things naturally and properly evolve from lower Static Qualities to higher Static Qualities potentially continuing upward to the ultimate goal of achievement of Dynamic Quality. Pirsig called dynamic quality "the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality" because one can recognize quality before one can think about it. For example, sitting on a hot stove is a low quality situation; a person does not need to think about getting off of the stove in order to do so. Pirsig defines Static Quality as everything that can be conceptualized. Pirsig further divides Static Quality into Inorganic, Biological, Social and Intellectual Qualities. Inorganic patterns: Universal laws such as gravity, mass, fire etc. Biological patterns: Things concerned with living beings. (e.g. examples include sex, food, survival etc.) Social patterns: Cultural groupings of people. (e.g. the family, the state, religion, etc.) Intellectual patterns: Matters of the mind. (e.g. science, philosophy etc.) Pirsig described man's evolution as the moral progression of each of these patterns of value. For example a Biological pattern overcoming an Inorganic pattern (i.e. man walking upright) is a moral thing because a Biological pattern is a higher form of evolution. Likewise an Intellectual pattern of value overcoming a social one (i.e. Civil Rights) is a moral thing because intelect is a higher form of evolution than society. Pirsig claimed that the Subject-Object Based Metaphysics is the darling of the intellectual pattern of value partially because it empirically divides and defines things as objects and dismisses subjects as too non-empirical. The intellectual pattern did not recognize the morality of intellect over society because it distanced the subject from the object, fact from value. Pirsig also claimed that many of the problems of the latter 20th century stemmed from the intellectual pattern's backlash against the social pattern's dominance of the past. The four patterns of static value as well as dynamic quality account exhaustively for all of reality. External links
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