Hi Gav, I'd not heard of Merleau-Ponty before; I think there is a strong connection here with the work of F.M.Alexander and then a reinforcing tie back with Alexander's influence on Dewey. Alexander's was a very practical approach to the use of the self especially with regard to postural habit. Critically, the technique he developed is based absolutely on none-SOM principles in his treatment of the self as a psycho-physical organism where the practitioner attempts to constantly re-establish sensory contact with the body and thereby lives more in the moment.
Also, the practice of self-remembering (re-membering: again deliberate re-establishment of sensory contact with the body while working) is, without question, the most useful thing I took away from my time in Gurdjieff groups. -Peter 2008/7/29 gav <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Pirsig's mission is to replace SOM with MOQ, so why are many on this list > reluctant to let SOM go? > > the answer, i believe, is that SOM is so entrenched in our collective > psyche that it is very difficult to conceive of it being superceded. if this > supercession were not difficult then pirsig needn't have spent decades > thinking through the problem. pirsig is not the first philosopher to > recognise the subject/object schism...indeed this profound dilemma has been > haunting philosophy for centuries. to move beyond SOM requires radical > surgery. > > the intellectual cannot be solely SOM: the MOQ is an idea and it is not > SOM. > > to let go of SOM is to let go of the idea of dualism, of solipsism, of the > possibility of pure objectivity. instead the subjective becomes partnered > with the intersubjective (to follow husserl and merleau-ponty). the > intersubjective world - the previously 'objective' world - is the world of > phenomenal consensus. > > with the copernican re-ordering of the universe a schism was created: the > everyday world of our perceptions was usurped by the idea of the 'real' > order of a heliocentric universe. the locus is not with our own body-subject > and its being-in-the-world, but with an abstract point of reference. this > abstract realm is only accessible by the intellect. in other words reason > becomes the sole method of recognising truth - plato's world of forms, > christian heaven, and the pre-eminence of (SOM) intellect all presuppose and > perpetuate this abstract-phenomenal dichotomy with precedence given to the > abstract. in other words the abstract becomes real and the phenomenal > becomes epiphenomenal: this is baudrillard's 'simulacrum' or the spectacular > reality of the situationists. SOM is part of this worldview and it can't be > separated from it. to try and hang on to SOM is to miss the point of > pirsig's work. > > the copernican revolution enthroned the sun as the centre of things; this > is a paternal standpoint. the earth is the goddess, the sun is god and the > human is supposed to be the dynamic union of the two. since copernicus the > earth has become merely an object and only god - the male aspect of divinity > - is recognised. > > we perceive from earth. our experiential locus is the body-subject - this > is the experiential centre of the universe (god is an intelligible sphere > whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere - cusa). only from this > point of view can we esemplastically reconcile the realms of heaven and > earth into a dynamic unity. > > if we need more proof of the need for SOM to be superceded we need only > look to phenomenology and existentialism. the psychopathological effects of > SOM were recognised and predicted by husserl and others (most famously > dostoevsky). SOM is the 'disensoulment' of the earth - of ourselves. it is > the mechanisation of life and human and it is this that is the meaning of > the robot/AI myths - NOT the production of truly intelligent autonomous > mechanical beings, but the production of mechanical beings from truly > intelligent autonomous ones!!!!!!!! > > so i entreat one and all to stay true to the core of pirsig's work. if you > think SOM is okay then you are very sorely mistaken and you should probably > go back and read bob's books again...slowly. > > > > Find a better answer, faster with the new Yahoo!7 Search. > www.yahoo7.com.au/search > 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/
