This thread should be re-named. Let's call it "killing intellectual values" because that is the dastardly deed that results from the kind of anti-intellectual misreading so often perpetrated, ironically, in this philosophical discussion group.
I suppose most everyone has heard about this thing called "confirmation bias", the psychological tendency to dismiss information that doesn't fit into one's present web of beliefs. Pirsig talks about this tendency in various terms; truth knocks on the the door and you say, "go away, I looking for the truth". He uses the "full cup" metaphor, wherein new ideas can't fit because your tea cup is already full of old tea. His description of "The Cleveland Harbor Effect" illustrated the problem beautifully and without any judgement or condescension. But what goes on here takes the confirmation bias to a whole new level. Oh. My. God. Marsha and others have adopted a couple of basic premises that make any conversation quite impossible. The first one is that Western intellectuals cannot escape subject-object metaphysics and the second is that the MOQ is something other than Pirsig's philosophy as presented in his books. Since almost any evidence I might offer will come from Western intellectuals or from Pirsig's books, these two premises effectively insulate Marsha from any possible corrections. Since all philosophers are stuck in SOM, all thinking is hopelessly illusory, all concepts are inherently reified, then nothing counts as excellence in thought and Pirsig's words can never count as evidence for Pirsig's intended meaning. You see the problem with that? If you dismiss Pirsig's statements and fundamentally distrust all the other intellectuals, there is no possible basis of agreement about anything. Marsha has put herself inside a bubble of immunity where no new idea can ever get in. She's has built a w all that specifically screens out her best chance of ever learning anything. She has set things up so to deliberately insulate herself from the most appropriate, relevant and powerful forms of criticism. It's a recipe for making sure she stays stuck and we can see this utterly unmovable stuckness in almost every response, wherein criticism is answered with an exact duplicate of the very thing that's drew criticism in the first place. On top of being desperately said, it's boring. God, it's boring. I've had more interesting exchanges with parrots. She's found a way to dismiss anything that could count as evidence against her view. If it doesn't matter what Pirsig or any other philosopher says, then what in the world could ever change her mind? If Marsha thinks it doesn't really matter what Pirsig or any other philosopher else says, then why in the world would she subscribe to the MOQ discussion? Is like the guy who hates getting wet, joins the swimming team and then complain s about water the whole time. Jeez. Don't shit in the pool, just quit and go do something else. Asshole. 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
