Hi Ron, Good topic (I think). On Sat, May 7, 2011 at 6:13 AM, X Acto <[email protected]> wrote: > Is MOQ a form of Transcendentalism? belief in an ideal spiritual state that > 'transcends' the physical and empirical, and if it is what are the historical > consequences? > > But I'm not convinced that this is Pirsigs conclusion, especially in the light > of his conclusion of Lila, > The conclusion that the MoQ is best understood in the statement that Good is a > noun not an adjective.
[Mark] Yes, I agree, MoQ speaks of Quality as "ever-present". Good is an active noun, like Freedom-ness. > > To make Good an abstract noun we apply the suffix -ness to form the word > "Goodness". > > Goodness, Pirsig states is the primary empirical reality. In this light, what > does it mean to transcend > the empirical? [Mark] Light is free and does not experience time according to Einstein. Light is important in many forms of metaphysics. It transcends the empirical. There is no cause and effect at that level, because there is no time. We can learn a lot from that. There is no time in the ever-present. > > MoQ, to me, embeds a large portion of the traditions of American Philosophy > under the primary general > explanation of Quality or Goodness. Connecting the schools of > transcendentalism, > Enlightenment philosophers > and Pragmatism as well as Darwinism, Process Philosophy and analytic > philosophy > as parts of a larger > explanation. [Mark] OK, I am not sure if I get that. > > Does this concept of Goodness promote a monism of a sort that Thomas Paine > asserted when denouncing > the revealed religions of the world in his "Age of Reason" ? or does it point > to > an attitude more like that of > Doctor Pangloss in Voltaire's 'Candide"? that despite human suffering that > this > is the best of all possible > worlds?. [Mark] Well this is a question of either having a positive or negative attitude. Pirsig speaks a lot about attitude in ZMM, sometime calling it gumption (a popular word at the time). MoQ creates a positive attitude just through its central theme. This is indeed the only world possible, and perfect in the moment. So, Candide, accepts it as it is, and does not wish that things were different. They can't be by the way, such a thing is not logical. To believe so is to detach oneself from Quality. The "Age of Reason" is a religion, where Reason is God. > > If all Life is a migration toward goodness then it could'nt be anything else. [Mark] Yes > > The struggle towards goodness RMP states is a struggle towards freedom. > But with freedom comes responsibility. [Mark] Agreed. Cheers, Mark > > > > ===================================== > 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 > 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
