Amoral objectivity (value-free science) is the problem. The solution is to
ditch this genetically flawed conception of rationality for an expanded
rationality in which knowledge and truth IS a species of value. And yet the
anti-intellectualists would like us to believe that intellectual values are
inherently degenerate, that it's always a sin to trade in definitions or
concepts of any kind. This misses the point of the MOQ by a distance that can
only measured in light years. Or maybe it's more like shooting yourself in the
eye.
In ZAMM Pirsig wrote (all emphasis is Pirsig's in the original):
"Hold Quality undefined. That was the secret." (ZAMM, p. 218)
"Thus did he seek to turn the attack. The subject for analysis, the patient on
the table, was no longer Quality, but analysis itself. Quality was healthy and
in good shape. Analysis, however, seemed to have something wrong with it that
prevented it from seeing the obvious."
"A real understanding of Quality doesn't just serve the System, or even beat it
or even escape it. A real understanding of Quality CAPTURES the system, tames
it, and puts it to work for on'w own personal use, while leaving one completely
free to fulfill his inner destiny." (ZAMM, p.223)
"I don't mind the Quality, it's just that all the classical talk about it ISN'T
Quality. Quality is just a focal point around which a lot of intellectual
furniture is getting re-arranged." (ZAMM, p.223)
"I think furthermore, that all his metaphysical mountain climbing did
absolutely nothing to further either our understanding of what Quality is or of
what the Tao is. Not a thing. That sounds like an overwhelming rejection of
what he said and thought, but it isn't. I think it's a statement that he would
have agreed with himself, since any description of Quality is a kind of
definition and must therefore fall short of its mark. ...No, he did nothing
for Quality or the Tao. What benefitted was reason. He showed a way by which
reason may be EXPANDED to include elements that have previously been
unassimilable and thus have been considered irrational. I think it's the
overwhelming presence of these irrational elements crying for assimilation that
creates the present bad quality, the chaotic disconnected spirit of the
twentieth century." (ZAMM, p. 257)
"I think that it will be found that a formal acknowledgment of the role of
Quality in the scientific process doesn't destroy the empirical vision at all.
It expands it, strengthens it and brings it far closer to actual scientific
practice."
Similarly, in LILA Pirsig wrote:
"The Metaphysics of Quality says that science's empirical rejection of
biological and social values is not only rationally correct, it is also morally
correct because the intellectual patterns of science are of a higher
evolutionary order than the old biological and social patterns. But the
Metaphysics of Quality also says that Dynamic Quality - the value-force that
chooses an elegant mathematical solution to a laborious one, or a brilliant
experiment over a confusing, inconclusive one-is another matter altogether.
Dynamic Quality is a higher moral order than static scientific truth, and it is
as immoral for philosophers of science to try to suppress Dynamic Quality as it
is for church authorities to suppress scientific method. Dynamic value is an
integral part of science. It is the cutting edge of scientific progress
itself."
Is this a case of intellect, "a lower form of evolution, ..trying to devour a
higher mystic one"? Are we supposed to slam the breaks on scientific progress
itself. Are we going to shout down every attempt to say anything about anything
by simply saying that Quality cannot be defined? Are we supposed to believe
that living and thinking like a human being is some kind crime? You think
Pirsig would write two philosophy books just to say that any kind of
philosophical discussion is some sort of moral violation? This whole
conversation is just asinine and yet it has gone on year after year.
I'm so sick of this stubborn, stubborn stupidity. Not even when it's spoon-fed
right up to your lips!
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