[Platt] About James' pragmatism, Pirsig wrote: "The idea that satisfaction alone is the test of anything is very dangerous, according to the Metaphysics of Quality. There are different kinds of satisfaction and some of them are moral nightmares. The Holocaust produced a satisfaction among Nazis. That was quality for them. They considered it to be practical. But it was a quality dictated by low level static social and biological patterns whose overall purpose was to retard the evolution of truth and. Dynamic Quality. James would probably have been horrified to find that Nazis could use his pragmatism just as freely as anyone else, but Phaedrus didn't see anything that would prevent it." (Lila, 29) Do you agree?
Ron: Greetings Platt, I would think Pirsig might be horrified that one could use his Moq Just as freely as anyone else also. Put a tag on morals and you do just the same as the Nazis. Morals are a function of evolution. You seem to imply the reification of Cultural norms as being a universal truth. The Nazi final solution was not embraced by all of the party, but, The hierarchal structure and the consequence played a role As well as the individuals faith in the hierarchy to determine "what is best" Example: You support a president that favors war Counter to cultural morals Because of the belief in what's best And the faith in the hierarchy. You favor capitalism which is Counter to Christian ethics and morals Of charity to the poor. The deceit of the nationalist party Was preparing the stage to justify It's own brand of pragmatism. Lets not get practical quality and justifiable Genocide confused. Quality is not universal truth Morality is not universal truth Morals are a process not a truth. Morality is the process of preference. What determines what one prefers is another Thing altogether. Truth is a term used to define a relative level Of certainty within a particular context as it Applies to its use. Quality, morals, truth, and betterness Do not exist outside the conditions which Define them. Pirsig uses the term Moral as a metaphor For an evolutionary function of preference. Not a culturally defined ideal of good. 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/
