Zen and the Art of Robot Maintenance

Pirsig says in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that a good test of whether or not something exists is to do a thought experiment in which the thing in question is removed from the world, and to see how that version of the world compares to reality. He finds that by removing value (he calls it "quality"), you lose art (what makes one paining better than another, or better than a blank wall?), interesting food, most professions, and so on, and are only left with some philosophy and pure mathematics.

I would extend this further and say that without hierarchal value (or "quality"), society would cease to function as it currently does and we would be reduced to a animalistic... no, we'd live a robotic, mechanical state of being, as simple machines. We would lose our ability to evaluate the things around us. We would lose the essence of what it is that makes us human. We'd also lose all motivation aside of our basic urges (biologic programming.)

Value exists entirely in the human mind. It is an effect of consciousness. No consciousness means no value judgements. Consciousness at least has an a priori basis. And thus so does existence. And so does truth (which is another term for reality). Is value simply an adaptable programming that we've evolved along the way? If so, then it reduces to evolution and biology. But in that case it has it become so maladaptive that people are willing to die for their values and thus remove themselves from the gene pool, which seems counter-productive. Or they make aesthetic judgements about art that often have nothing to do with finding a mate. So then it would be one of those strange quirks that evolve because it is evolutionarily neutral. It neither works to our advantage or disadvantage evolutionarily.

My hope is to find an a priori basis for value. Perhaps truth could work, but I'm not sure yet. Truth is another way of referring to reality, which I exist in. I know that exist because I think, right? But is it better to be in reality, or to be profoundly schizophrenic?