Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality

Theory of reality

The Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) is a theory of reality introduced in Robert M. Pirsig's philosophical novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) and expanded in Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991). The MOQ incorporates facets of Sophistry, East Asian philosophy, pragmatism, the work of F. S. C. Northrop, and Indigenous American philosophy. Pirsig argues that the MOQ is a better lens through which to view reality than the subjective/objective mindset that Pirsig attributes to Aristotle. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance references the Sanskrit doctrine of Tat Tvam Asi ("Thou art that"), which asserts an existential monism as opposed to the subject–object dualism.

The Metaphysics of Quality originated with Pirsig's college studies as a biochemistry student at the University of Minnesota. He describes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that as he studied, he found the number of rational hypotheses for any given phenomenon appeared to be unlimited. It seemed to him this would seriously undermine the validity of the scientific method. His studies began to suffer as he pondered the question and eventually he was expelled from the university. After spending some time in Korea as a soldier, Pirsig concluded that Oriental philosophy was a better place to search for ultimate answers. On his return home from Korea, Pirsig read F. S. C. Northrop's book The Meeting of East and West which related Western culture to the culture of East Asia in a systematic way. In 1950, Pirsig continued his philosophical studies at Banaras Hindu University, where he came across the Sanskrit doctrine of Tat Tvam Asi —in his words, "Thou art that, which asserts that everything you think you are (Subjective), and everything you think you perceive (Objective), are undivided. To fully realize this lack of division is to become enlightened." The nature of mystical experience plays an underlying role throughout his work. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pirsig taught rhetoric at Montana State College – Bozeman and, with the encouragement of an older colleague, Sarah Vinke, decided to explore what exactly was meant by the term quality. He assigned his students the task of defining the word. This, coupled with a Native American Church peyote ceremony he attended with an anthropologist friend, James Verne Dusenberry, led Pirsig into what he called "a mushroom cloud of thought." Pirsig began developing his ideas about quality in his first book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and expanded and codified his ideas into the MOQ in Lila.

"Quality," or "value," as described by Pirsig, cannot be defined because it empirically precedes any intellectual construction of it, namely due to the fact that quality (as Pirsig explicitly defines it) exists always as a perceptual experience before it is ever thought of descriptively or academically. Quality is the "knife edge" of experience, found only in the present, known or at least potentially accessible to all of "us" (cf. Plato's Phaedrus, 258d). Equating it with the Tao, Pirsig postulates that Quality is the fundamental 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 ideas, and matter) is a product and a result of Quality.

The MOQ maintains that Quality itself is undefinable (Tao), but to better understand it, Pirsig breaks quality down into two ("knife edge") forms: static quality patterns (patterned) and dynamic quality (unpatterned). The four patterns of static quality as well as dynamic quality account exhaustively for all of ("knife edged") reality. As the initial (cutting edge) dynamic quality becomes habituated, it turns into static patterns (viz. data, expectations). Pirsig is not proposing a duality: quality is one, "every last bit of it", yet manifests itself differently. Rather than dualism, this manifestation of quality in terms of dynamic and static aspects represents a dialectical monism.

According to Pirsig, East Asian philosophers and American Indian mystics, dynamic quality/the Tao/God/the One cannot be defined. It can only be understood intellectually through the use of analogy. Pirsig calls dynamic quality "the pre intellectual cutting edge of reality" because it is recognized before it can be conceptualized. This is why the dynamic beauty of a piece of music can be recognized before a static analysis explaining why the music is beautiful can be constructed.