Hi Woods, > Platt: > I see that all your examples cite individuals. Do you see any evidence of > compassion, caring. love, etc. towards humanity in general, i.e., the > social level? (To say it's necessary is not the same as saying you love > it. > In fact, intellect fights for freedom from social conformity and control. > Recall the protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989.) > > > [ZMM Ch. 24] > "There has been a haze, a > backup problem in this Chautauqua so far; > I talked about caring the first day > and then realized I couldn't say > anything meaningful about caring until its > inverse side, Quality, > is understood. I think it's important now to tie care to > Quality by > pointing out that care and Quality are internal and external aspects > of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he > works is a > person who cares. A person who cares about what he > sees and does is a person > who's bound to have some characteristics > of Quality." > > [ZMM Ch. 24] > "He has to care! > This is an ability about which formal traditional > scientific method has nothing > to say. It's long past time to take a > closer look at this qualitative > preselection of facts which has seemed > so scrupulously ignored by those who > make so much of these facts > after they are ``observed.'' I think that it will > be found that a formal > acknowledgment of the role of Quality in the scientific > process > doesn't destroy the empirical vision at all. It expands it, strengthens > it and brings it far closer to actual scientific practice. > I think the basic > fault that underlies the problem of stuckness is > traditional rationality's > insistence upon ``objectivity,'' a doctrine that > there is a divided reality of > subject and object. For true science to take > place these must be rigidly > separate from each other. ``You are the > mechanic. There is the motorcycle. You > are forever apart from one another. > You do this to it. You do that to it. These > will be the results.'' > This eternally > dualistic subject-object way of approaching the motorcycle > sounds right to us > because we're used to it. But it's not right. It's always > been an artificial > interpretation superimposed on reality. It's never been > reality itself. When > this duality is completely accepted a certain nondivided > relationship between > the mechanic and motorcycle, a craftsmanlike feeling > for the work, is > destroyed. When traditional rationality divides the world into > subjects and > objects it shuts out Quality, and when you're really stuck it's > Quality, not > any subjects or objects, that tells you where you ought to go. > By returning our > attention to Quality it is hoped that we can get technological > work out of the > noncaring subject-object dualism and back into craftsmanlike > self-involved > reality again, which will reveal to us the facts we need when > we are stuck." > > > woods continues: > Not sure where your going with care and quality Platt?
Note what Pirsig is talking about -- works, mechanic, stuckness, craftsmanship, scientific process, etc. -- all in reference to doing a job. To cite this as a judgment about moral duties demanded by humanitarianism is reading into it something that isn't there. In Lila, Pirsig's later book, "caring" doesn't come up at all except in describing how Dusenberry learned more about Indians than other anthropologists who were SOM bound. In fact, in a New York minute he changes from caring for Lila for the "rest of his life" to being relieved that Rigel took her off his hands. Besides, unless someone acts like Mother Teresa, his claim of being a caring, compassionate person is largely hypocritical. Politicians like Obama, for example, who tell everyone how much they "care" for the "oppressed" do so with other people's money. Talk about moral charlatans! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to dig up the quotes. Platt 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/
