Bo:
> On the nostalgia issue: If what's described as the coming of SOM in > ZAMM is the coming of the intellectual level in the MOQ, then the > Aretê that P. says is displayed by the old Homeric heroes must be > social value. Thus we must conclude that young Pirsig, totally > immersed in intellect's SOM reality, saw the past's non-SOM Aretê > reality as a "paradise lost" and something he identified with Quality > itself. Platt: Interesting. I will have to ponder your tracing of Pirsig's development. It never occurred to me that Arete was a social value. If it was "conventional wisdom" in Homer's time, maybe so. Ron: Arête is a social value; it was in the work of Aristotle that the doctrine of arête found its fullest flowering. Aristotle's "Doctrine of the Mean": "By an equal or fair amount I understand a mean amount, or one that lies between excess and deficiency. By the absolute mean, or mean relative to the thing itself, I understand that which is equidistant from both extremes, and this is one and the same for all. By the mean relative to us I understand that which is neither too much nor too little for us; and this is not one and the same for all." -Aristotle In short, Balance Platt. Arête is balance. Better-ness is balance. Not domination. 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/
