This started out as a reply to Michael's post about the evolution of duality but I decided to start my own thread as I find myself wanting to share my philosophical diarrhea all the time and this weblog listens so well!

To those who have not, I suggest introducing yourself to Robert Persig's meta physics of Quality.  It is the underlying theme of his book The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“ Its poorly named (the book and the philosophy, I think), but it is designed to remove the duality of common subjective/objective metaphysics. 

We often create classifications to describe things and then suddenly out pops an exception.  Why is it an exception?  Because it does not follow the rules of logical reality?  NO!  because our rules are flawed.  Consider mammal, reptile, bird, fish...  Classification of these groups were defined from existing scientific knowledge of creatures in our Earthly world.  Then came the Platypus!  It lays eggs yet is covered with fur, has a beak, secretes poison, has an electro-receptor system for detecting prey...  what is this?  is it an exception?  is it a class all by itself? Truly, it is just a collection of qualities that make up the animal.  The meta-physics of quality suggests that "Quality" precludes everything else. 

Quality not just as a property of something (like the quality of being purple) but a measurable value which serves to both define and drive something (like the quality of being happy).  Quality drives evolution.  The value of being in a place with lots of light drives plants to evolve taller.  Gravity drives things to be short and close to the ground.  The quality of being tall outbids the quality of being pulled by gravity.  This allows classifications to be broken down and redefined more easily.

Light and Dark are the same thing.  They are quantities of light from much to none.  Black and White are values of shade quality from much shading to little or no shading and are really the quality of interpreting reflected light. Good and evil can be described and multiple qualities of wickedness and wholesomeness but there are so many more properties that make up what is evil and what is good that we group them such.  In fact, this falls into the "subjective" category (is ambition good or evil?) but then we find universal truths that can be listed as "objective" (murderous is evil) and this explains our failure when approaching the study of some interest because nothing truly falls entirely into one category or the other.  Even math begins to behave in strange ways in certain instances.  We call these anomalies, irregularities.  There is always that realm of unknown is any topic and when new knowledge does not follow old dogmas we either call it a Platypus or change our formulas to support it.  Democrat and Republican are a perfect example of illogical classifications.  We have become so immersed in this duality that we fail to serve the majority of people who have nothing personal to gain from an election.  We introduce the Platypuses of the Green party and the Christian Slangiest party but the truth is that we should just drop this party nonsense and vote on the qualities that we admire and share.  More people would vote if they had something to stand up for.  But to stand up against the most offensive party is like taking a punch from the weakest bully, what's the point? 

Allowing yourself to break free from the confines of your previously formed classifications and predispositions is a great way to find inspiration.  Language is one of those limiting structures.  Consider that American English has hundreds of words for money but only one word for love!  In fact you say, "I love my wife," and , "I love this commercial" the same way.  The Italians and French have many words for love but they don't generate the kind of gross national product that America does...  Alot to consider.   I mumble when I play the guitar while writing a song.  Before there are words to the song I try to let the emotion of the melody become something.  I have been told by other musicians that they “liked what I was saying in that first verse”.  The funny thing is that I wasn't saying anything.  It sounded like something to them and they made it fit the emotion of what they were hearing.  Because there was no rigid language structure there, their brains filled in the gaps and out came something else.  Or perhaps I was saying something and didn't know it!  But then my brain was doing the same thing.  That's the funny thing about brains.  When you take the cage off, it can do the most amazing things.  Clear the clutter first, then begin your dance. 

Begin with Quality.  Never begin with rules.  Apply the rules as they are appropriate and necessary.  When the rules work, use them to help make things consistent.  Every once in a while, even if just as an exercise, remove the rules and see if what comes out looks like a big, incoherent mess or if, by some subconscious, innate genius, a pattern emerges.