[John] Ok, now I'm gonna argue a bit. goody. "Words in a book", Arlo? Even a novel is more than "words in a book" and a metaphysics is much more than that (talk about reductionist)
[Arlo] Well I was reacting with my personal dislike of the term "The MOQ". I am more okay with "Quality-ism" or something that covers the different responses and recontextualizations of Pirsig's seminal ideas. "The MOQ" makes it sound like there is One MOQ out there and our "job" is to evolve it. I've used the analogy with Bo that there is this One True MOQ out there and he and Pirsig and I and Ant are just groping around trying to interpret "The MOQ". I don't think this is a good way of thinking about this. Of course the field of inquiry we are all part of is more than words in a book, in the same way "Pragmatism" or "Radical Empiricism" is more than words in a book. The are living, evolving narrative of analogies responding to experience. [John] But I think the MoQ stands out quite a bit in fact, from the normal development of most metaphysical systems, which are usually highly technical conversations or reactions placed in academic systems. [Arlo] I understand there is a lot of "those damned interlictials" going on, all these stoopid perfessers and their commie ideas mucking up the world for freedom loving free thinkers. And while there are valid criticisms of the Academy, there is a reason why the enormity of historical philosophical dialogue occurred within its halls. Even in the Buddhist tradition, scholarly discipline was held within "walls" where the history of the dialogue could be seen, examined and debated. The "walls" are a necessary immune system that keeps out viruses and parasitic patterns. Yes, like any immune system it can function too tightly, no one would say otherwise. But to demonize the immune system is to champion cancer. When the body can longer distinguish between viruses and harmless (or helpful) organisms, it quickly dies. The Academy built its immune system because of the extreme risks and cancer offered by the social patterns whose control it had to overcome. It HAD to ensure that The Church could not "squelch" Copernicus' ideas, and it has been under relentless assault from social power ever since. 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
