Krimel said: If we have been overzealous in sublimating emotion and values since the enlightenment, it is a sublimation that emotion and value richly deserved. Humanity was governed by its emotional values for millennia. If reason finally got a chance to take charge for a change I say, bully for it. And it has done a fairly nice job under the circumstances. Reason is the late arrival even in evolutionary terms. Man seems to be the only living thing we know to possess it. It also seems that the function of reason is inhibitory. It serves to override the emotions and stop us from acting on the immediate emotional "value" of the present. It helps us subordinate what feels good to what makes sense.
Pirsig said: In the past our common universe of reason has been in the process of escaping, rejecting the romantic, irrational world of prehistoric man. It's been necessary since before the time of Socrates to reject the passions, the emotions, in order to free the rational mind for an understanding of nature's order which was as yet unknown. Now it's time to further an understanding of nature's order by reassimilating those passions which were originally fled from. The passions, the emotions, the affective domain of man's consciousness, are a part of nature's order too. The central part. (ZAMM p. 294) dmb says: Like the classic-romantic split or the static-dynamic distinction, the idea is to include them both. The idea is to integrate reason and the affective domain to produce an expanded and improved form of rationality. The classification of static quality into levels helps us see that Pirsig is not simply saying we should we become hedonists or live on our instincts. You know why he's calling the affective domain of man's consciousness "the central part" or nature's order? He's talking about Quality. The "passions" also include the creative spirit, the ability to form a hypothesis, to hit your target on the fly, and all those other forms of skilled engagement. In those situations the "emotions" are not just things like sadness and anger. It's far more subtle and complex but it certainly involves the use of "feelings" as real information. Or, to be perfectly blunt about it, you're just advocating squareness. The lifeless voice of that bloodless, heartless reason is the main enemy of the MOQ and it's coming out of your mouth. When you read Moby Dick, I'll bet you cheered for the whale. > 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/md/archives.html _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5 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/md/archives.html
