Hi Ian
For your intellectual edification regarding Pirsigs rejection of the
(what is now called) SOL:
From Lila's Child Chapter 13
Platt:
From the beginning of the Lila Squad, Bo has maintained that the
intellectual level is
SOM (rationality, language, science). [129] It's gradually seeped into
my mind that Bo is
right about this. SOM is the current mental framework and means of
communication in
which we operate from day to day, enabling us to "make a living" and
enjoy "the good
life."
Pirsig:
129. I've always thought this is incorrect because many forms of
intellect do not have a
subject-object construction. These include logic itself, mathematics,
computer
programming languages, and, I believe some primitive languages (although
I can't
remember what they are).
Platt:
Far from condemning SOM, the Metaphysics of Quality holds it to be the
highest level
yet achieved. [131]
Pirsig:
131. Within the intellectual level, mathematics, especially quantum
mechanics, seems
higher to me.
Platt:
To fill the hole may require a new level above SOM. I'm not sure about
this. After all,
the MOQ is an SOM document based on SOM reasoning. [132]
Pirsig:
132. It employs SOM reasoning the way SOM reasoning employs social
structures such
as courts and journals and learned societies to make itself known. SOM
reasoning is not
subordinate to these social structures, and the MOQ is not subordinate
to the SOM
structures it employs. Remember that the central reality of the MOQ is
not an object or a
subject or anything else. It is understood by direct experience only and
not by reasoning
of any kind. Therefore to say that the MOQ is based on SOM reasoning is
as useful as
saying that the Ten Commandments are based on SOM reasoning. It doesn't
tell us
anything about the essence of the Ten Commandments and it doesn't tell
us anything
about the essence of the MOQ.
Platt:
So, I fully agree with Bo's insight that the SOM and the intellectual
level are one and the
same. To support it, to protect it, to avoid losing it and sinking back
to "anything goes"
irrationalism or a "because God says so" mentality, we need to recognize
its vulnerability
to attacks from academic philosophers, social do-gooders, spiritual
evangelists, and its
own internal paradoxes. To that end, the MOQ is the best S/O answer I've
found yet.
[133]
Pirsig:
133. I think this conclusion undermines the MOQ, although that is
obviously not Platt's
intention. It is like saying that science is really a form of religion.
There is some truth to
that, but it has the effect dismissing science as really not very
important. The MOQ is in
opposition to subject-object metaphysics. To say that it is a part of
that system which it
opposes sounds like a dismissal. I have read that the MOQ is the same as
Plato, Aristotle,
Plotinus, Hegel, James, Peirce, Nieztsche, Bergson, and many others even
though these
people are not held to be saying the same as each other. This kind of
comparison is what I
have meant by the term, "philosophology." It is done by people who are
not seeking to
understand what is written but only to classify it so that they don't
have to see it as
anything new. God knows the MOQ has never had two better friends than Bo
and Platt,
so this is no criticism of their otherwise brilliant thinking. It's just
that I see a lowering of
the quality of the MOQ itself if you follow this path of subordinating
it to that which it
opposes.
I'm not how much more confirmation the SOLists require without P.
knocking on their doors and telling them in person!
Also, I know you were at the 2005 conference but were you sitting with
Pirsig in the pub the evening before when he was asked what he thought
about Bo's SOL (or whatever it was called then). His replies were a
straightforward rejection from my recollection.
Cheers
Horse
--
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines
or dates by which bills must be paid."
--- Frank Zappa
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