Interesting. Thanks for the link Ant. Ian
On 12/18/07, Ant McWatt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Here's an interesting series of new essays about the MOQ by the > writer/editor, Caryl Johnston: > > > http://meta-q.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-search-of-quality.html > > > Her initial essay starts: > > > Thirty-three years ago Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle > Maintenance took the American publishing world by storm in 1974. It was an > immediate critical and commercial success, sold millions of copies in > twenty-three languages, and was described by the London Telegraph as "the > most widely read philosophy book, ever." To aging baby boomers who may have > missed the book when it first came out, and wearied by neoliberalism and > neoconservatism and all the perversions known to man in between the two, it > may come as a surprise to know that the book is not much about either Zen or > motorcycles. Zen and its 1991 sequel, Lila, are actually novels about a quest > to establish the purpose and value of philosophy. Or rather, they are > attempts to raid the encampment of philosophy, which has become entrenched in > the subject-object dualism of modern rationalism and fortified by the spoils > dispensed by universities, government, and economics, to capture its real > prize: an orientation that makes sense of the world, makes a difference in > how one lives, and does justice to all levels of human nature. These "raids" > are carried out as true stories related in a novelistic fashion. Their > "quality," aside from the philosophical meaning this term will have for > Pirsig, is therefore at the outset personal, participant, embodied in real > people – autobiographical, and in a certain sense also, historical. Both > books, but especially the second one, contain striking and thoughtful > insights into the nature of the modern project, especially in its American > incarnation. I want to focus in particular on how these insights help us to > understand our society and why it seems to have such difficulty with the > affirmation of moral truths. > > > But first a general comment. Aside from the business craze for "Total Quality > Management" which swept America in the 80's, and then embarked to Japanese > corporations – a craze which may or may not have owed something to Pirsig's > discoveries – I see little evidence in the United States that Pirsig's > Metaphysics of Quality has penetrated into any crevasse of American thinking. > His books were immensely popular here, but American literary and professional > elites still continue to churn out reams of sociological and > "philosophological" (a Pirsig word for something that is not exactly > philosophy) commentary that contain the same old eviscerated Cartesian and > post-Protestant presumptions which, despite all their varying and even > conflicting forms, have basically nothing new to offer. When Americans find > themselves in the mood for debate, they can tune in to the same argument that > crops up decade after decade: science vs. religion, or evolution vs. creation > (or more recently Intelligent Design). The characters retire; the arguments > never do... > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > Fancy some celeb spotting? > https://www.celebmashup.com > 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/
