Do you think Phaedrus is more like a realist or an idealist when it comes to Quality?

Does Phaedrus think that Quality exists exclusively in our minds (or God’s mind, or Buddha’s Mind) ?

Or does he think that Quality has a reality outside our minds?

Does Phaedrus think that Quality exists exclusively in our minds (or God’s mind, or Buddha’s Mind) ?

Or does he think that Quality has a reality outside our minds?

A few days later he worked up a definition of his own and put it on theblackboard to be copied for posterity. The definition was: “Quality is acharacteristic of thought and statement that is recognized by a nonthinking process. Because definitions are a product of rigid, formal thinking, quality cannot be defined.” Part II, Section 17

In his rhetoric class, Phaedrus had presented his students with examples of high quality writing and low quality writing. They had been able to distinguish the two, but had been unable to explain the difference.

Does Phaedrus think that Quality exists exclusively in our minds (or God’s mind, or Buddha’s Mind) ?

Or does he think that Quality has a reality outside our minds?

“A thing exists,” he said, “if a world without it can't function normally. If we can show that a world without Quality functions abnormally, then we have shown that Quality exists, whether it's defined or not.” He thereupon proceeded to subtract Quality from a description of the world as we know it.Part III, Section 18

But how the hell do you ever justify, in terms of reason, a refusal to define something? … His answer was an old one belonging to a philosophic school that called itself realism.

It was a finisher-offer, a knockdown question, a haymaker, a Saturday-night special...the kind you don't recover from. Because if Quality exists in the object, then you must explain just why scientific instruments are unable to detect it. You must suggest instruments that will detect it, or live with the explanation that instruments don't detect it because your whole Quality concept, to put it politely, is a large pile ofnonsense.

…the English faculty at Bozeman, informed of their squareness,presented him with a reasonable question: “Does this undefined ‘quality’ofyours exist in the things we observe?'' they asked. “Or is it subjective,existing only in the observer?”

On the other hand, if Quality is subjective, existing only in the observer, then this Quality that you make so much of is just a fancy name for whatever you like.Part III, Section 19

Does Phaedrus think that Quality exists exclusively in our minds (or God’s mind, or Buddha’s Mind) ?

Or does he think that Quality has a reality outside our minds?

And finally: Phædrus, following a path that to his knowledge had never beentaken before in the history of Western thought, went straight between thehorns of the subjectivity-objectivity dilemma and said Quality is neither apart of mind, nor is it a part of matter. It is a third entity which isindependent of the two.Part III, Section 19

And so: he rejected the left horn. Quality is not objective, he said. It doesn'treside in the material world.Then: he rejected the right horn. Quality is not subjective, he said. It doesn'treside merely in the mind.

Eventually, however, he examined it more closely. Although there's nological objection to a metaphysical trinity, a three-headed reality, suchtrinities are not common or popular. The metaphysician normally seekseither a monism, such as God, which explains the nature of the world as amanifestation of one single thing, or he seeks a dualism, such as mind-matter,which explains it as two things, or he leaves it as a pluralism, whichexplains it as a manifestation of an indefinite number of things.Part III, Section 19

The world now, according to Phædrus, was composed of three things: mind,matter, and Quality. The fact that he had established no relationshipbetween them didn't bother him at first.

Quality is not a thing. It is an event.

Warmer.

It is the event at which the subject becomes aware of the object.And because without objects there can be no subject...because the objectscreate the subject's awareness of himself...Quality is the event at whichawareness of both subjects and objects is made possible.

Hot.Part III, Section 19

…eventually he saw that Quality couldn't be independently related with eitherthe subject or the object but could be found only in the relationship of thetwo with each other. It is the point at which subject and object meet.

That sounded warm.

“the sun of quality,” he wrote, “does not revolve around the subjects and objects of our existence. It does not just passively illuminate them. It is not subordinate to them in any way. It has created them. They are subordinate to it!”Part III, Section 19

This means Quality is not just the result of a collision between subject andobject. The very existence of subject and object themselves is deduced fromthe Quality event. The Quality event is the cause of the subjects and objects,which are then mistakenly presumed to be the cause of the Quality!

Which interpretation makes the most sense to you?

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