Greetings,
Platt writes of the unspoken assumption of unbelievers being the undeniable moral
value of truth. It
was clear to me from the outset that this relied upon a re-invention of the word
'moral' and this
was shown to be the case when Platt presented his definition.
Platt:
"Morality is what�s good, right, true or beautiful.�
The problem is that this is not what is meant by morality. Morality is entirely
concerned with the
goodness or badness of human behaviour. It is not surprising that if the 'unbeliever'
is confused by
the terms he is using, then he will be even more confused by the argument that Platt
presents.
At issue here is not my objection to Pirsig re-inventing definitions of perfectly good
words
(although I object to that also); it is the way that this obfuscation is designed
purely to
establish a deeply flawed point. There is a huge and vital difference between the
'good' of utility
(e.g. 2 + 2 = 4 is a good answer) and the 'good' of morality (e.g. It was good of you
to help that
old lady across the street). What Pirsig (and now Platt) has done is to reduce the
'good' of
morality to the 'good' of utility. In doing so they advocate an irredeemably amoral
metaphysical
position. Yes, that is what I mean. The MoQ has nothing whatsoever to contribute to
debates about
morality, simply because it does not recognise anything beyond functional uses of the
term 'good.'
Platt can repeat his point that every assertion is a moral judgement after everything
I (or others)
say if he so desires. Without resorting to comments about his ancestry I will simply
repeat my point
that he should look up morality in a dictionary. If Platt then comes back at me and
tells me that
the dictionary is wrong and that 2 + 2 = 4 is a moral assertion, I will rightly
conclude that he is
(despite his protestations) some sort of new age nut whose moral foundation is as
insubstantial as
castles in the sand.
Struan
------------------------------------------
Struan Hellier
< mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"If you say that everything is moral then that means morality is everything, which
reduces to
everything is everything, which means nothing." (Struan - after Pirsig)
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