p.s.  I have even read the term 'reificationism' used as one of the two 
extremes that Nagarjuna and RMP push back against.  
 
 
 
On May 1, 2011, at 1:51 PM, MarshaV wrote:

> 
> Marsha:
> Speaking of "Please notice" I have noticed that you have expanded your 
> understanding of 'reify' beyond the 7-word sentence found in some dictionary 
> that you insisted upon last December.  Good job!  
> 
> 
> 
> On May 1, 2011, at 1:25 PM, david buchanan wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Please notice the difference between the following statements. (1) Things do 
>> not exist inherently or independently. (2) Things do not exist.
>> The first statement makes a negative claim about the nature of things. It 
>> qualifies the existence of things by denying that they are permanent or 
>> essential or that they exist in isolation from each other, that they are 
>> discrete, discontinuous entities in themselves. The second statement simply 
>> denies any kind of existence at all. The first statement pushes back against 
>> Platonism, essentialism, objectivity and other forms of reification. The 
>> second statement far more drastic, maybe even ridiculous. The aspirin I'm 
>> about to take may not have anything like an independent or inherent 
>> existence but I fully expect that it really will relieve my pain. And I stop 
>> at red lights too, despite the fact that it's JUST a conventional reality. 
>> We can reject the metaphysical premise behind scientific materialism and 
>> still be afraid whenever anyone ever points a gun at us. There are concrete 
>> realities and practical consequences that can't just be sweep under the rug, 
>> or shrugged off with a
 s
> ce
>> tic indifference. The MOQ is not some magic chant that makes the world 
>> dissolve into misty dreams. 
>> Yes, the mysticism and the Zen are very, very important central elements. 
>> But it's also about fixing things and the good cuts of meat. It's also a 
>> form of pragmatism that says our normal, conventional reality cannot 
>> function without quality. Remember that thought experiment in ZAMM wherein 
>> Pirsig takes us through a grocery store with no quality and how drastically 
>> that was changed? The title of ZAMM is just about enough to let you know 
>> that it's aimed at a kind of re-enchantment of the ordinary, finding the 
>> Buddha in the gears of bike or, as James would put it, returning philosophy 
>> to the earth of things. It is decidedly NOT otherworldly. Don't you think? 
>> Even its mysticism is NOT otherworldly. Don't you think? And what other 
>> reality do we ever have? I think it would be best to reject the existence of 
>> reality as we understand it conventionally and conceptually only between 
>> meals and never while you're driving. 
>> 
>>> Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 11:18:58 -0400
>>> From: [email protected]
>>> To: [email protected]
>>> Subject: Re: [MD] Free Will
>>> 
>>>> Marsha:
>>>> I un-ask the question.   Wherever those preferences lie, they do not 
>>>> inherently exist.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Steve:
>>> The MOQ says that the only things that exist are such preferences
>>> (patterns of value). Locating such preferences in a subject is an
>>> inference from the preferences, so the subject borrows any existence
>>> it can be thought of as having from the patterns of preference from
>>> which it is inferred. There is no "I" that stands out side of patterns
>>> of value (except for the capacity for patterns to change). In other
>>> words, what you are (and what a rock or tree or thunderstorm is) is
>>> collection of likes and dislikes, loves and hates, desires and
>>> aversions. When you peal that onion there is only emptiness (DQ).


 
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