Bravo! Bravo!! Bravo!!!
At 11:56 AM 10/12/2007, Ian wrote: >On to your actual point Ham ... > >In this concluding piece ... > > > > But I shall not pursue this line of criticism further, since it is obvious > > that Pirsig's own pronouncement of his philosophy as "not just > atheistic but > > anti-theistic" has been taken to mean that there is no > metaphysical reality, > > and that whatever is "unknown" cannot be significant because it is > > inexperiencable. This of course limits the MoQ to experiential knowledge, > > denying the ineffable, and reducing the Oneness of Eastern mysticism to an > > amalgam of empirical patterns. (And Marsha couldn't understand why I found > > this philosophy nihilistic! ) > > >I would take exception to all the "has been taken to mean", "cannot be >signficant because", "limits" and "reduces" if we were continuing the >debate, but since we're not ... > >I find this liberating rather than nihilistic. Free to turn away from >obsession with the black hole at the core of a metaphysics, free to >look out at value in the real world. (This is not a nihilistic denial >of some reality existing at the centre - just the pragmatic conclusion >that it's not the most important problem to address it.) > >Interestingly you bring in the "anti-theistic" angle. Dennett >conlcudes his "Breaking the Spell" with the idea that proving the >existence or nature of God (the first cause in the black hole at the >centre of things) on way or another is ultimately uninteresting for >the same reason. What is interesting is why people believe, and what >they do with their beliefs. > >Ian >Moq_Discuss mailing list >Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. >http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org >Archives: >http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ >http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
