dmb says: The students will be lead through those sorts of distinctions in the readings leading up to the class on Pirsig. Basically, the question of the meaning of life in general is associated with religion and old-style metaphysics whereas the question of the meaning of MY life in particular is associated with non-metaphysical, existential, humanistic worldviews. The first readings will include ancient Plato and postmodern Terry Eagleton, for example. As I mentioned, "the meaning of life" is the theme for the whole course and of course there will be a whole range of ways to ask and answer that question.
Ron: Having the suspicion that this one was aimed at my post, My response remains that the more adequate question, that Socrates asks, what does it mean to live a good life? which, in essence causes one to reflect apon the question of what is the meaning of MY life lends itself to an introduction of value in the Quality sense of the term. The question "what is the meaning of life" then takes on an objective color which may be an adequate way to introduce the problem in a familier way, but you might have a hard time introducing the humanistic world view over the established prejudical foundation of the metaphysical explanations of Plato. Making it difficult for the average student to become truly interested in what Pirsig is saying. 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
