Dan comments:
Here he seems to be equating Socrates idea of soul with Dynamic
Quality, though he doesn't use those words in ZMM as he does in LILA.
In LILA, it seems clear he equates the idea of God with social
patterns of value, thus his Copleston annotations are better
understood, I think:
"To the early Calvinists and to ourselves too this debasement of the
word seems outrageous, but it becomes understandable when one sees
that within the Victorian pattern of values society was God. As Edith
Wharton said, Victorians feared scandal worse than they feared
disease. They had lost their faith in the religious values of their
ancestors and put their faith in society instead. It was only by
wearing the corset of society that on oneself from lapsing back into a
condition of evil. Formalism and prudery were as to suppress evil by
denying it a place in one's "higher" thoughts, and for the Victorian,
higher spiritually meant higher socially. There was no distinction
between the two. "God is a gentleman through and through, and in all
probability, Episcopal too." To be a gentleman was as close as you
would ever get, while on earth, to God." [LILA]
"Good old technology. All this twentieth century sanity wasn't as
interesting as the old days of his incarceration but he was getting a
lot more accomplished, at a social level at least. Other cultures may
talk to idols and animal spirits and fissures in rocks and ghosts of
the past but it wasn't for him. He had other things to do." [LILA}
Dan comments:
In the first quote, he links higher spirituality with higher social
standing. To be a gentleman is to believe in God. In the second quote,
he declares while other cultures may believe in spirits and souls, it
isn't to be included in the MOQ.
If you have a different take, I would love to hear it.
Ron:
My take on the second quote is that was coming from the context of the
character
of
Phaedrus, the guy who is percieved as bookish and square, the guy that has a
difficult
time talking to Indians and Lila, the awkward intellectual. All those examples
of spirits
and ghosts had meaning for him at the peyote ritual.
The first quote, does seem to be stating that to the Victorians, higher
spirituality was
higher social standing and thus to the Victorians spirituality was a social
level value.
But if one reads Socrates and Aristotle, they developed a few excellent
intellectual
explanations. It is my contention that Pirsigs explanation is consistent with
them.
I hesitate to extend those quotes as criteria of inclusion or exclusion of the
idea of spirit or self
into an MoQ.
Thanks Dan
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