David

Yesterday I wrote about the above video in the context of the role Subject-Object Metaphysics(SOM) plays in undermining intelligent discourse in our media. Between a President and a media personality who both have the same ideological assumptions and are cheering on the same things. All while they do this with little to no intellectual scrutiny and little to no championing of intellectual values.

Today I'll write about this same video and the role identity politics plays in explaining Trump's racist policies.

Because identity politics has a way of splitting people up who have so much more in common regardless of their race. When we fixate on race, gender, or other biological markers, we miss the deeper layers that truly define us. We’re not just a collection of physical traits—we’re a blend of culture, experience, and shared values. And while an amoral Subject-Object approach neatly boxes us into racial categories and acknowledges their existence, it also undermines the increased freedom found in cultural values and leaves our cultural richness in the dust. That’s why the Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) feels like such a breath of fresh air; it appreciates the nuances of life and emphasizes the importance of culture and our freedom to be who we wish.

By reducing us to our biology, SOM based identity politics creates more conflict than connection. Instead of uniting people around common interests and shared struggles, it enables the socially powerful to pit us against one another based on superficial differences. This narrow focus not only drives wedges between folks of the same class but also pushes racial conflicts to the extreme. The more we emphasize fixed identities, the more we enable an elitist conservative narrative that uses these divisions to bolster racist policies. When our identity is defined solely by what’s immediately visible, we give license to reactionary ideas that thrive on exclusion and segregation.

For those of us who embrace the MOQ perspective though, it’s clear that true quality—whether in art, culture, or moral judgment—transcends the limited view of Subject-Object metaphysics. Culture isn’t a subset of biology; it’s beyond the rules of biology. It's the glue that holds communities together and is the combination of social and intellectual quality. As such we have far more freedom to be who wish than our biological identities reflect. When identity politics insists on reducing us to static, isolated biological categories, it strips away the layers that protect our shared values, and undermines the freedom at the heart of human experience.

After more than a decade of watching this ideology unfold, it’s become all too obvious that a conservative reaction to and interpretation of identity politics was almost inevitable. Leaders like Trump and Musk—seem to emerge from a system that only knows how to talk about folks in racial categories and undermine not just our shared culture but the freedom that we all have to be better people.

The real issue then isn’t just the fight for recognition or equality as identity politics insists—it’s the way we frame that fight. If we continue to define ourselves by narrow, rigid biological identities, we deepen the divides that uber-conservative policies exploit. What we need is a broader perspective—one that celebrates the full, multifaceted nature of who we are both as individuals and as a culture. By shifting our focus from mere biological categorization to the quality of our culture, we can foster a culture that values connection over division and depth over surface-level labels.

In the end then, identity politics, as it’s commonly practiced, does little to challenge the very power structures it claims to oppose. Instead, it often reinforces them, paving the way for policies and leaders that further entrench division. Embracing an MOQ approach means recognizing that our identities are a tapestry woven from far more than our physical attributes—they’re built from the freedom to be who we wish, the quality of our relationships, our shared stories, and the enduring values that bind us together.

In short, the MOQ takes us to a better way.

_video youtube cultural-values intellectual-morality dynamic-morality
David

After someone recently asked me if the philosophy I'm interested in is like that of Jordan Peterson and knowing there are a few others out there that have wondered the same thing.  I figured I might as well give something close to an official Metaphysics of Quality perspective here. Now having completed the below review - I am surprised at how beautifully the MOQ puts perspective on this debate and how quickly I was able to get a clear handle of the arguments on both sides.

Anyway - as is often the case with most post modern philosophy or whatever you'd like to call it - I often struggle to understand the ideas presented.  'Modern' philosophy or whatever you'd like to call it seems to me to be a bunch of intellectuals who are stuck in word games struggling within a bad metaphysics trying to describe something with words that don't easily match what they're trying to describe.  It seems as if they've been asked to define a pen but not be allowed to talk, in any way, about writing.  

Because of this, and Jordan Peterson's strange and apparently contradictory logic on the first video I watched - the easiest way for me to understand his ideas was by the above Youtube critique where he clearly lays out Peterson's definition of truth and that of some of his opponents.

Peterson defines truth as either:

Newtonian - Logical positivism (Materialistic)

Darwinian or Metaphorical - That which permits survival and reproduce. 'If it's true enough so that if you enact it out or hold it then it's true.'  And 'The ethical pursuit supersedes the scientific pursuit with regards to truth claim.' As well as 'The fundamentals of truth are those that guide action.'

The host (Stephen Woodford) objects to this for two reasons:

  1. It appears to allow for multiple truths to simultaneously exist
  2. It de-prioritizes the importance of 'objective' truth beyond our opinions of it.

And hello here we are with two problems the Metaphysics of Quality solves.  It's surprising but Peterson is actually correct in his definition but he is being limited by the metaphysics of his argument so is going to lose the argument.  

To be clear - the Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) resolves the first objection by claiming that multiple truths can exist because it's not truth but Quality which is fundamental. There is one Quality that's the source of all things and there can be many truths.  Truth - defined as a high quality idea - can change depending on the situation and what's  pragmatically best at any time.  

The second objection is painfully stuck in a Subject-Object metaphysical (SOM) view of the world.

'If it's only Subjective then it can't be Objective'.
- Every modern day philosopher.

But what the MOQ makes clear is that man is the measure of all things. And that while he is indeed the subjective measure of all things - as Peterson alludes to - there is a moral thing called Quality that's beyond anyone's opinion of it - and is more real than anything else. Quality is experience itself.  But being stuck in SOM Peterson can't say that and so he's going to get stuck in word soup and accusations of being plainly a subjective idealist as he apparently did in a long interview with fellow interlocutor Sam Harris.

As an aside - what's interesting to me at this point however is that if he stuck with plain old idealism he might actually win that argument against the realists. Because the idea that a world exists 'out there' is indeed just that - an idea. We can say it's a very good idea from a MOQ perspective, and that's why it can indeed be true as well, but it's really an idea. But he doesn't want to stick to just idealism because he, as most people, appreciates the power of materialism and knows his argument will be weaker if that's the point he wants to make.  

So in conclusion, I'm surprised that, at least in regards to his conception of truth, the Metaphysics of Quality leans on the side of Jordan Peterson in this debate where he argues that truth is ethically tinged.   But the MOQ by no means wholly supports his ideas as they end up in contradictions and word soup due to a lack of metaphysical clarity. Therefore I agree with some reddit posters, as linked above, that suggest he checks out Lila by Robert Pirsig which contains the first description of the Metaphysics of Quality which would greatly improve the intellectual clarity of his ideas.

_video intellectual-morality cultural-values celebrity
David


Ancient Greece - what a vibrant amazing place. Think of white robes and stoic purity when thinking of Ancient Greece? Think again.

I love to remind myself that it was a colorful and vibrant place, full of new ideas, intellectual arguments and the beginning of the creation of our modern day scientific understanding.

Of course, it's not just the colors of the statues that were different than what we've thought for a long time. But indeed - the place of that intellectual explosion and what exactly happened all those years ago is widely misunderstood. It's time to revisit and re-understand exactly what happened all those years back then.

1024px-NAMABG-Aphaia_Trojan_Archer_1

I'll write more about this soon but for now you can read more here - The Story...

_video intellectual-morality cultural-values youtube
David


Look out! We have Ancient Greek Socratics walking amongst us! They roam the streets of the world and question anyone willing to chat about their beliefs.

Welcome to a growing phenomenon known as Street Epistemology. Just like Socrates, the adherents to this movement claim to only be interested in the truth! They strive to - at the very least - raise some serious doubts in their interlocutors mind whilst they have a friendly chat about what some of their beliefs are..

From a Metaphysics of Quality perspective this is on balance a good thing.

Encouraging people to think further about things they claim to believe in is only healthy and mostly an invitation to be a better person who is more intelligent. Encouraging intellectual thought like this is moral according to the Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ).

Belief from a metaphysical sense is a very slippery word and so is not supported by the MOQ. Quality isn’t something you believe in. Quality is something you experience. And unlike anyone’s belief it can be empirically supported. Folks can’t get out of bed without deciding that it's better to do so!

That said, I think that Street Epistemologists, as with all modern day intellectuals, can improve their arguments around this so they are even more persuasive in their striving for the truth.

An illuminating part of the discussion above is where the interlocutor, Madison, is clearly taken by Anthony's intellectual honesty and is curious to know what it is that drives his pursuit for truth. The answer he provides her as the 'believer' at first doesn't seem to satisfy until he provides a very curious closing sentence.

"It's about trying to make the world a little bit of a better place."

Madison looks curious as if asking for more..

"I guess my presupposition is that the more true things that we believe - the better it will be for humanity.'

To lay this out from a Metaphysics of Quality perspective - it should be clear here firstly that Quality is indeed what is driving his pursuit of the truth in that first sentence. The second sentence is even more curious however as he appears to imply that he simply believes that things are true as well. That's Truth! Based on a belief? Where's the 'solid foundation' gone?

This seems like a simple problem that should have a simple answer but within a Subject-Object Metaphysics there is no such foundation. It is indeed only a belief that truth is fundamental and sound. And just like every other statement it is open to dialectical questioning. This is not the fault of Anthony but a clear metaphysical flaw of the Subject-Object Metaphysics from which he is operating. Of course the solid foundation of truth is Quality but he can't say that. He doesn't have the Metaphysics for it. It would for sure be interesting to have conversation with him about this. A future blog post perhaps?

In fact it would be interesting to perform Street Epistemology in much the same way as Anthony does - for the most part very skillfully - but with a key difference. And that difference would be an explicit understanding of the foundation of truth and what we are all indeed stiving for and living. Quality. A Modern day Sophist.

_video intellectual-morality cultural-values self-improvement
David
Metaphysics making things better - Psychology.


There's no such thing as matter. There's no such thing as the physical. There's no such thing as ideas. There's just quality. What's a good way to describe reality?

And if there's a good way - can you apply that quality to other things and find yet more quality? If something truly is good - then you would think it can pay forward like that right?

"I am kind of in the position of a theoretical mathematician who comes… you know, who has worked out a set of equations which to him look wonderful. He goes to a group of engineers and they say, "Well, what good is it? What's this going to do for us?"

Robert Pirsig to the Association of Humanisitic Psychology.

Like Pirsig - I don't claim to be a psychologist - but what I do think is that at the very least - at a very high level - the Metaphysics of Quality can start to create interesting distinctions in 'human behavior' that haven't been brought out clearly before by psychologists.

Looking at psychology from an MOQ perspective I can ask questions like - what behaviors are an unchangeable part of our biology and what of those are social? Whilst I'm sure these types of questions have been asked before - with the MOQ, we have a language with which we can discuss them and categorise them definitively and not get caught up on what exactly is social behavior and what exactly is biological behavior.

Because it provides clear distinctions like this - from there anthropologists or psychologists can also ask questions like - if they are social - do they serve their purpose in an intelligent way - or is there a better way they can be achieved? If so, then obviously because they can be changed then it's best that we do so. And from this clear cultural recommendations can be made by intellectuals on the best way to live.

Because this would be dramatically different let me repeat. Using the Metaphysics of Quality - intellectuals, could provide recommendations, based on human psychology, on the best way to live a moral life. Not just for some people in some such a culture. But for all people. Everywhere.

I think this would clearly be a dramatic improval to the way things are done now. A psychology now whose terms are not clearly philosophically defined and also importantly - whose aims are also unsure. Because more than anything - it provides us an overarching frame that everyone can get behind and grounds us all in a moral direction towards a better future.

Anyway, with this perspective from here I will be writing about psychology studies that I see that the MOQ can perhaps provide further color to and how the MOQ makes it uniquely clear that they can help us to live better lives.

intellectual-morality the-law cultural-values self-improvement