Hi Horse, Ken and LS.
Horse, I really liked your Jan. 23 post on Motorcycle Maintenance except
not in the context (right word?) of bikes but of painting. As someone who
dabbles in watercolors I often just sit and stare to organize my thoughts
about what�s the next brush stroke or color to use, all because I care
about what I'm doing. Strange as it seems, the painting will often �tell me"
what to do next. It's my imagination speaking, of course. But still ...
About this holistic/contextual business--in answer to my question about
the difference between the relative view and the holistic view you wrote:
>The sense in which I meant the above was that the contextual
> view is holistic, whereas the relative view is reductionist. An act of "evil" should
>not be
> seen in isolation and merely compared to another similar act. It must be seen as
>part
> of the overall environment in which it has been created.
Not to beat this into the ground but I wonder what limits, if any, one
places on the holistic �overall environment� view. Should one look all the
way back to the beginning of time and expand outward to include all of
space to the ends of the universe?
I can see in one sense that we're all made of stardust and are connected
to everything else that exists. But, at what point in determining good or
evil does one draw the line?
For example, my death in the overall context of a holistic universe won't
mean much, but to me it's proximity would be rather significant. Or, in
Ken Clark's view, a meteor striking the earth that wiped out humanity
wouldn�t be too bad because nonsentient Universal Quality is, in his
words, �all good.�
Seems to me you have to put a boundary around holism somehow.
Otherwise, it just means pretty much whatever you want it to mean to
include whatever you want to include. If we can't agree on the
boundaries, then it seems to me we will always end up in relativity land
where your ideas about good and evil are just as good or bad as mine.
Horse, I'm all in favor of discussing a "holistic moral system with Quality
as the base.� As you know, I�m a great Pirsig fan. I just need to get a
good handle on what "holistic" means first, at least as you see it in
connection with the MoQ. I don't think Pirsig ever used the term, so I
must turn to you for help. Thanks.
Platt
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