David Harding said:
SOM has the worlds academia caught in a metaphysical trap.
Arlo interjected:
I wanted to comment on this, because it is both a common sentiment here and one
that presents a false distinction. ...I think one confusion is that
everything "non-MOQ" is ipso facto "SOM", and this is simply absurd. Pirsig's
MOQ may be the best alternative to SOM but it isn't the only intellectual
consideration that is attempting to move away from an S/O lens.
Cultural-historical psychology, emergence theories, semiotics,
structurationists, even the oft cited scholars of James and Dewey, all these
(and others) are at least questioning the primacy of subjects and objects, even
if they lack the language of Pirsig's MOQ. ...I'd say the effects of the SOM
lens are stronger among most non-academic communities, and the ongoing trend
towards consumerism noted in ZMM is one example of the ruinous outcome of SOM
on the larger populations as a whole.
dmb says:
I agree.
If everything outside the MOQ is viewed as SOM, then that view will simply
dismiss academia, science and philosophy. It's not very hard to see how this
absurd position leads directly to an excessively robust anti-intellectualism.
At this risk of sounding like a snob, this is one area where it really helps to
know something about the wider world of philosophy. There are lots of thinkers
who've grappled with that dualism and rejected it in various ways - for at
least two centuries. As far as I can tell, no thinker will help more than James
and Dewey. I mean, if the aim is to understand Pirsig's particular critique of
SOM and his particular alternative then nobody will be more illuminating than
those two radical empiricists. Heidegger is much harder to read but his
critique of technology will illuminate Pirsig's critique of technology - so
well that it's scary.
Bashing academia is NOT heroic - not unless you have something better to offer.
In fact, it's not even interesting. People who do that, I just assume they're
some kind of right-wing ignoramus. Sorry.
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