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See our 7Mar2001 table which extensively compares MoQ, CR, & SOM:
Metaphysics of Quality, Cultural Relativism, and Subject-Object Metaphysics.

Famous MoQites
  • Robert M. Pirsig (1928-) author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Lila, and Subjects, Objects, Data, and Values. Pirsig does not want Quantonics to provide personal information. If you read his books on topics like celebrity, you can see why. If you search for 'pirsig' you may find additional information. He treats us extremely well when we stick to his Metaphysics of Quality, so let's follow his lead and do just that. MoQ is Pirsig's gift to us, so if we learn it and use it, good will follow.


Previously Unidentified MoQites of Historical Note:

  • Henri Louis Bergson (1859-1941) - We nominate Bergson as an intuitive MoQite. As we read Bergson first time, we were astounded to find exquisite harmony with both Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality (MoQ I) and quantum sciences' Mechanics of Quanta (MoQ II).

    Essence: Bergson says reality is quintessentially heterogeneous and Qualitative. If he knew Robert M. Pirsig, he probably would agree with Pirsig that reality is Quality.

    Antithesis: Bergson vehemently denies any classical view that reality is homogeneous and thus quantitative.

    Bergson's bottom line: Reality is Qualitative, not quantitative!

    Bergson opposed traditional philosophy's classical logic and science. He rejected classical sciences' impudent arrogance and its concomitant denial of intuition. Intuition, to Bergson, possessed much higher Value than rational, dialectical thought.

    Morton White in his, The Age of Analysis, says, "It is very difficult to classify Bergson under the conventional philosophical labels..."

    Aside: Those of you familiar with Pirsig's works will recognize a Pirsigean platypus here. To classicists, Bergson is a 'platypus,' not classifiable, not recognizable by classical philosophers and scientists. "Aha!" They say, "Bergson is nonclassifiable, therefore he does not exist!" :end aside. Doug. (28Jan2000)

    In Bergson's own words, "You must take things by storm; you must thrust intelligence outside itself by an act of will." This is analogous to our saying, "Get out of SOM's limiting axiomatic box/church of reason.." and as soon as you find yourself boxed-in again, "storm out."

    We found Bergson in our search for innovative interpretations of time, and his interpretation of time certainly falls in that category. Mae-wan Ho distills Bergson's comparison of classical time and real time thus:

    SOM/Classical Time,
    "An infinitely divisible homogeneous quantity,"

    vis-à-vis

    Bergsonian/MoQ/quantum Time,
    "An indivisible heterogeneous Quality."

    In Mae-wan's Bergsonian distillation of SOM/Classical time we see reductive homology, quantitative reason/truth over qualitative Value/intuition, functional analyticity, continua, etc.

    In her MoQ/quantum version we see commingling multitudinism, qualitative Value/intuition over quantitative reason/truth, ensemble stochasticity, quanta, etc.

    (May we suggest you read at least chapter 12 of Mae-wan's, the Rainbow and the Worm, which we reviewed here, but we left her time chapter to your own consideration and potential enlightenment. In addition to referring Bergson on a correct interpretation of real time, she also references Hermann Hesse's, The Glass Bead Game, originally titled, Magister Ludi, which won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1946. We are reviewing it now and will show our review mid-2000. Magister Ludi's Castalian training and intellectual pursuits represent mostly an antithesis of Bergson's own philosophy. However, Magister Ludi's subsequent Li-la transitions to and fro three more Homo sapiens garner a sense of Bergson's own "duration.")

    Bergson says our classical way of experiencing reality and thinking about it is inadequate. In his view, we should not view experience as a nonstochastic series of snapshots, one preceding, another succeeding, each separate and distinct from one another. He calls this way of thinking a "mechanically oriented psychology." He thinks we should treat life as a flux of fleeting shades merging into and emerging from one another. Instead, we treat life like solid-colored beads, side-by-side on a necklace. (Here is a ~350k animation of our artistic (but unfortunately mechanistic ) equivalent of Bergson's, "...flux of fleeting shades merging into and emerging from one another.")

    Life, to Bergson, is a qualitative process. Real, lived, qualitative time (i.e., heterogeneous times) is and must be carefully distinguished from physicists' and mathematicians' artificial, quantitative time (i.e., homogeneous time).

    William James (Sidis' godfather, and namesake) found Bergson's work tantalizing. Bergson, as did James, found formal devices of our intellect as pragmatic [should be prosaic — this was an original semantic error on Doug's part] and plain. As such, these formal devices cannot commingle and interpenetrate our consciousness, let alone its complement. Both of them felt philosophers seek real reality, where physicists and mathematicians seek mechanical, axiomatic analogies of reality. (We agree! We surmise Pirsig does too!)

    Bergson's primary theory is called 'creative evolution,' and it contraposes both mechanistic objectivism/transformationalism and deterministic teleology. Both depend upon analytic, homogeneous time. Both fail to see how time cohesively, heterogeneously, yet ubiquitously sinks its many-pronged, multitudinous, multi-orthomodular tuning forks into reality's whole cloth. Bergson thinks his theory allows us to change our thinking modes and see objectivism's and teleology's innate weaknesses. Then we can move to a new open bazaar of change and freedom unencumbered by inductionism and causal determinism.

    Note that Bergson's élan vital is much like Pirsig's DQ, Sidis'/William James' reserve energy, Stein's nonspace, Quantonics' nonactuality, etc.

    Bergson wrote, Time and Free Will (1890), Matter and Memory (1896, tr. 1911 & 1988), Introduction to Metaphysics (1903, reprinted as The Creative Mind (1946)), and Creative Evolution (1907, tr. 1911?), and The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1932). Bergson won a 1928 Nobel Prize for literature. Read about him and see whether you agree with our assessment of his candidacy as an official MoQite.

    One final aside: Please be aware that Quantonics and its QTMs (Quantum/Quantonic Thinking Modes) resolve a large question which Bergson addressed called, 'Darwin's dilemma.' QTMs show us that evolution is occurring in many time 'frames' in massively parallel fashion across all scales of physical reality, at differing rates commingling times' frames. What Bergson called 'saving up' of mutations is, just like his concept of time, "...an indivisible heterogeneous Quality." In a Bergsonian, real sense, time is evolution and evolution is time. Doug. (28Jan2000) :end aside.


  • Blaise Pascal - We nominate Pascal as Quantonics' first official MoQite immediately behind Pirsig. At first glance one would disagree. However, Pascal's ideas so closely align Pirsig's we have to place him here, even above Pirsig's beloved pragmatists. Why do we place Pascal in this high stature? He is our first philosopher whom we have read who intuits quantum science. We show quantum science on this web site as a strong dual of Pirsig's MoQ. We even call Pirsig's philosophy MoQ I and quantum science MoQ II, to show how closely their dualities align. Pascal sees reality as a both/and commingling of both shape (Pirsig's Static Quality) and motion (Pirsig's Dynamic Quality). He sees them as inseparable, a fecund wave function of both particleness and waveness interpenetrating, dancing harmoniously together. And Pascal did all this between 1623 and 1662!

    Note that similar to William James Sidis, Pascal's father chose to teach Pascal himself.

    Pascal intuited and experienced directly what Pirsig calls the unknown, or Dynamic Quality. Pirsig's DQ is what Buddha calls, "...an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed." It is identical to quantum science's Vacuum Energy Space, or VES. When measured, it is source of creation, change, and discreation.

    Yes, we must promote Pascal, 300+ years after his death, to MoQite! Done!


Unconfirmed approximates:

  • John Dewey - pragmatist/scientist/ethicist (Doug, in 2008-2009 no longer considers Dewey a candidate.)
  • William James - pragmatist/psychologist/religionist Also see:
  • Charles Sanders Peirce - pragmatist/semanticist/linguist (only aspect of Peirce's reality which fits is a priori abductivity vis-à-vis a posteriori inductivity and deductivity...Doug - 1Jun2009)
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein - early logical positivist/analyst, late pragmatist (In Quantonics we see his "...meaning is...use..." closely akin our own 'many truths.' Sounds much like pragmatism.) Also see extensive Wittgenstein Biographies and Information.
  • This was originally written in 1999. Since then, CeodE 2009, Doug can add countless other MoQite approximates, including:
    • Nearly all anti-Christian, anti-hylic, i.e., wise, gn¤stics: Blavatsky, Mead, and countless others... (Essene Jesus taught that a 'Christ' is essentially Satan) Christianity issi anti-quantum...unreal pure SOMiticism
    • Buddha
    • Jesus (Essene Gn¤stic Jesus, Tribe of Judæa, Beth David)
    • John~Mary~Magdelen ("one Jesus loved," a female disciple)
    • Thomas (Jesuit disciple)
    • Philip (Jesuit disciple)
    • Heraclitus
    • Cratylus
    • William James Durant
    • Clifford Geertz
    • Charles Darwin...n¤n analytic, n¤n functional self~other~referent emergent evolution (wave~based emerscenture of physi) is a principal feature of gnosis...
    • many others...

      Doug - 1Jun2009.
  • We need to investigate further, but panexperientialists/panempiricists may also be approximates. If you want to share your expertise in either of these, within Quantonics, please let us know.
  • Please suggest others


Definition of Quality:

Quality is a multiversal admixture of both dynamis and stasis. Dynamis inures privilege over stasis, but depends on stasis to preserve dynamis' better quantal evolutionary progress judgments.

Definition of dynamis:

Dynamis creates, changes, discreates, commingles and interpenetrates all stasis. Dynamis remains undefined. It is not finite intellect definable. It may be described, but it may not be defined. Dynamis may be described as stasis' complement, i.e., nonactuality/nonspace/unlatched/unfretted/etc.

Definition of stasis:

Stasis is co-within dynamis. Stasis is all known- and unknown-actualized/-latched/-fretted/etc. reality.

Definition of quantal:

Planck rate discrete action (i.e., Planck rate pragma) with superluminal (zero latency) edges (non-classical, non-dissipative).

Definition of evolution/evolutionary:

Quantized incremental outcomes prefer ensemble stochastic value (interrelationships) preconditions. Note: This explains SOM's material/physical delusions of analyticity, induction, cause-effect, determinism, reversibility, etc. Expected, but non-general, local Earth conditions manifest mostly stabile stasis ensembles.


Are YOU an MoQite?

    • If you are a student of Pirsig's works, there may be an outside chance you may be an MoQite.
    • If you do not know whether you are an MoQite, but you re-read Pirsig's works regularly, you are probably on your way to becoming an MoQite.
    • If you believe nature is both good and moral, you share intrinsics with practicing MoQites.
    • If you believe reality is quantum and non-classical, your own heuristic philosophy is close to Pirsig's MoQ.
    • If you intuit change as higher value than stasis, you intuit MoQ's rudiments.

Known Wannabes:

    • Matthew Lafontaine: Wrote his thesis applying MOQ to Human Rights, Oslo, Norway. (7Feb2017)
    • Anthony McWatt — First known MoQ Ph.D. candidate, UK
    • Bo Skutvik — Pirsig acquaintance; ardent supporter, NO
    • Doug Renselle — Student of Pirsig's works; disciple, US
    • Mukundan Iyengar — I am presently studying management (MBA) in a premier institute in Jamshedpur, India called Xavier Labour Relations Institute(XLRI) which is a part of the fraternity of Xavier institutes all over the world. Incidentally, Jmshedpur is the home town of TATAs the first business house of India. I am an ardent follower of Mr. Pirsig.
    • Add your name to this list — with brief credentials

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To contact Quantonics write to or call:

Doug Renselle
Quantonics, Inc.
Suite 18 #368 1950 East Greyhound Pass
Carmel, INdiana 46033-7730
USA
1-317-THOUGHT

©Quantonics, Inc., 1999-2032 — Rev. 7Feb2017  PDR — Created 24May1999  PDR
(27Jan2000 rev - Add new MoQite: Henri Bergson. Correct spelling and typos.)
(28Jan2000 rev - Extend and revise our Bergson MoQite entry.)
(31Jan2000 rev - Correct typos.)
(28Mar2000 rev - Add links under Bergson: 'Bergson says,' and our book ref. — to our review of his Introduction to Metaphysics.)
(1Jul2000 rev - Add anchor to Bergson entry. Extend Mae-wan Ho comment re: Magister Ludi & Bergson.)
(11Oct2000 rev - Add new links to Bergson as a candidate MoQite.)
(7Mar2001 rev - Add link to our new MoQ, CR, & SOM comparison table.)
(30Mar2001 rev - Add anchor to Mae-wan Ho's Bergson comments on divisibility/indivisibility.)
(27Aug2001 rev - Correct Doug's original 'pragmatic' semantic error to 'prosaic.')
(14Dec2001 rev - Add top of page frame-breaker.)
(2Jun2002 rev - Add links to newly completed TaFW review.)
(17Nov2008 rev - Reformat page. Reset legacy markups.)
(1Jun2009 rev - Change column widths in table. Ten years later, extend list of 'unconfirmed approximates.')
(7Feb2017 rev - Add Matthew LaFontaine as a wannabe MoQite.)