Comments below:
[dmb]
> Think about the way Pirsig uses the concept of
> betterness. It is something like the engine of
> evolution. It is the motive for human development
> and political reform and artistic innovation. This
> concept is not vague so much as it is an all
> pervasive principle, one that seems to play a role
> at every level of reality.
> I learned that there is a word for this view.
> Meliorism. James and Dewey were meliorists. If
> Douglas Anderson is right, meliorism is "perhaps THE
> central belief shared" by pragmatists. They believed
> that philosophical inquiry "could lead to the
> betterment of human existence" which means that
> "pragmatism was a philosophy of hope". Anderson is a
> Pirsig fan and the author of "Philosophy Americana".
> He's also one of the editors of "Classical American
> Pragmatism", an anthology we used in my pragmatism
> class. Anyway, I think meliorism is not exactly the
> same as optimism. I think its even more than the
> belief that humans can improve the world. The
> radical empiricism of James and Dewey has a way of
> pushing the concept even further than that. Its more
> like the belief that betterness is a real feature of
> reality, not just something we might or might not
> add to it. You know, life IS development and vice
> versa.
> It seems to me that the so-called cold and ruthless
> universe is not the reality we know and experience
> so much as the feeling we get when we contemplate
> the picture of it that has been painted by physics,
> that indifferent machine of cause and effect, where
> reality is ultimately the law-like action of dumb,
> dead matter. This is classic SOM. This is the
> picture that calls for a creator too. But I think
> meliorism can be taken even to the "physical" level
> so that we no longer ask how the universe was MADE
> but rather how it GREW. I realize that this is a bit
> awkward on that level. One has to get used to the
> idea of extremely persistant patterns of preferences
> among inorganic patterns (rather than physical laws)
> but it works wonders in terms of de-alienation. When
> the concept of betterness is extended that far, we
> are akin to even the big bang. I dunno. It just sort
> of shifts one's attitude. When galaxies collide its
> a mighty fine show. (Thanks Mr. Hubble!) The stars
> aren't lightyears away. They're in my eyeballs. Ever
> been to the Rockies in July? Vermont in October?
> Ever seen the stars from the middle of the pacific
> or the northern lights from Alaska? The term
> "awesome" is misused and overused, but in this case
> the word fits. That cold and ruthless universe looks
> beautiful from here. This place rocks, even the
> rocks, don't you think?
SA:
Heck Yeah! Rocks - rock!
meliorism, hmmm, interesting... this throws some
light on the betterness and moral patterns.
Isn't this about how patterns form? Something
kin to scapulimancy and neural coding (see John
Horgan's article 'Changing My Mind About the Mind-Body
Problem' for the latter in what Ian linked for us as
follows:
http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_7.html#horgan )
(I also noticed John Horgan wrote a book called
Rational Mysticism.)
woods,
SA
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