Steve, Matt, a small point....
Matt said to dmb:
Seriously? You think Steve will be a bad math teacher and I'll teach
composition poorly because we don't really understand why we need to describe
one kind of experience as "direct" or "pure" or "pre-intellectual"?
dmb says:
I don't know what level Steve teaches, but I can tell you that the basic
distinction between empiricists and rationalists does have its counterpart in
any discipline. Or so it seems. My brother-in-law (and good friend) is a
professor of economic at UC San Diego and he explained to me that there are two
distinct camps with respect to mathematical models. And he launched into that
explanation after I told him about the way James divides philosophers into two
basic temperaments. He recognized it right away. We thought that was pretty
cool, the way our very different domains seemed to display the same divide.
Anyway, if Steve teaches math at the college level this rivalry is very likely
have a great deal of relevance. Like James, Pirsig is very much about fusing
both camps as part of the effort to expand rationality. The central concept of
Quality is what you need to see how he's getting the classic (math) and the
romantic (literature) to work together. Quality is what Art, science and
religion all have as a common starting point. If you're teaching anything at
the college level or beyond, this picture is going to be relevant to your
thinking. Or so I hope.
But hey, I'm just saying there is no good reason why the main idea should elude
either of you. It's just a mix up. Would you like to hear about it?
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