Greetings,
Platt. Your comment about the need for Pirsig in the US got me thinking. I have almost
no experience
of education over the pond (my brother lectured in astronomy at the University of
Texas for three
years and we regularly see, via the newspapers, dead children and teachers being
dragged out of the
occasional American school, but that is as close as I have got), however, I am
convinced that in
England the pursuit of beauty and truth is paramount. Looking at Amazon.com in
comparison to
Amazon.co.uk, it is perhaps instructive that Lila is 2000th'ish on the best seller
list in the
States, while it doesn't even make the top 100 000 over here. On the whole, we clearly
aren't
interested. I suggest the reason may be that Pirsig is, in the words of Oxford
metaphysician, Galen
Strawson, 'rigorously unoriginal,' to most people with a half-decent education. ZAMM,
by contrast,
sold by the shed-full. Not for the philosophy, which is disjointed and impenetrably
confused, but
because it was a seriously well written and original narrative.
Perhaps you, Platt, could tell me what you consider to be the, "small step from their
�transcendent
world of values as the greatest good� to Pirsig�s Metaphysics of Quality," and I will
then try and
tell you what I object to about it. I worry that your answer will rely upon the myth
of SOM to
substantiate itself - and that in itself would be an answer to your question of making
the small
step - but let us see.
Finally, I have been providing evidence against almost every aspect of the MoQ for
almost three
years. Of course I don't expect anyone here to agree with me (they would be unlikely
to be here if
they did after all), but I do find it a fun relaxation aside from what I consider to
be my serious
philosophical work. I did, at one time, consider putting it all together into one
extended piece but
confess that I have never managed to see it as important enough to do so. If I ever
were to find the
MoQ becoming accepted by more than a handful of people, then I would consider it my
(moral) duty to
publish something against it. As time goes by, I have come to realise that this will
never happen
and so am happy to throw a few ideas in whenever I feel like it. It is nice to have a
bit of dynamic
debate every now and then, don't you think?
I know I haven't answered your questions fully, Platt. If you could see your way to
answering mine
first then I will do so.
Struan
------------------------------------------
Struan Hellier
< mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"All our best activities involve desires which are disciplined and
purified in the process."
(Iris Murdoch)
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