Hello everyone On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Steven Peterson <[email protected]> wrote: >>> dmb says: >>> I think Pirsig's comments only clarify and illuminate the very issue we've >>> been debating for months and I think it is your questions that just muddle >>> things... > > >> Dan: >> Yes, I agree with David here. Which is why I observed that sometimes >> we think too much. We don't see what is being said for thinking about >> what our answer is going to be... > > Steve: > Pirsig has described freedom as a matter of perception while every > other philosopher that I have ever read has described it as a matter > of will. You don't see that as interesting? That's not worth thinking > about?
Dan: That's not what I mean... of course it's interesting and has intellectual value. Sometimes though, we gloss over what's important in life by over-thinking. Instead of listening to someone or really reading the words that they write, we are thinking of what our answer is goign to be. There is a time for thinking and a time for not-thinking. For example... I've talked before about how when I come upon a very difficult problem that I'll study it and think about it in great detail and then just let it go. Forget about it. And later, maybe a few hours or a few days or even a few weeks, an answer will just pop into my head, usually when I am doing something mindless like taking a walk. Did I think about the problem? Yes. And then I forgot it entirely. That is what I'm getting at when I say we sometimes think too much. We fail to allow time for not-thinking. > > What is so weird for me here is that based on what you've said > previously you _don't_ agree with dmb on this free will business. > Correct me if I am wrong, but I understood that you disagree with > dmb's claim that Pirsig's conception of freedom is about the capacity > of a rational agent to freely choose among a set of options. Dan: I am unsure that dmb and myself are in complete agreement in regards to the free will vs determinism debate but I don't exactly recall our disagreement at the moment. Did dmb say that a rational agent does the choosing? That sounds a lot like Ham. Still, just because we may not agree on one aspect of the MOQ doesn't mean we don't agree on most of it. I think we do. Thank you, Dan 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
