Re: MD Pirsig's letter - A response

[Peter Lennox]

Hi, In what way are the concepts of 'price' and 'value' related, and, if not 'one-to-one' then they are not in any sense equivalent. so, money is almost wholly about price (with the intrinsic overtones of blackmail), whilst 'value' is something else.... which, apparently, money can't (always) buy, - that is, value is something which may be percieved, may be given, or may just exist (according to Pirsig), but may not actually be 'demanded', enforced, etc. So, if you value the concept of money, then almost any currency has some (apparently)intrinsic interest attached to it, whilst if you don't, then no money has intrinsic value that you can perceive. This seems to be a thing that you can't really explain to a businessman OR a naive 'primitive'. However, the latter is likely to have grasp of 'trade', whilst the former may well be able to survive without any notion of 'trade-free' value. so, it turns out, 'value' is in someway more ephemeral than 'price'; but does that in any way imply that less ephemeral is less 'real', or (reciprocally) that more 'concrete' is more 'value'-able?     50 martian Spex to the contestant who can guess which side of the fence I'm on.... but it's probably the same side that most philosophers (even sophists) are on; so who are we to comment on money / price/ value relationships? cheers ppl ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 03 November 2000 22:50 Subject: Re: MD Pirsig's letter - A response In a message dated 11/3/00 3:33:54 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: How is it we assign value to items like money? It's easy to experience value if one accidentally sits upon a hot stove and it's easy to experience value if someone gives you change for a five dollar bill when you gave them a twenty. And likewise a stack of money is a stack of money only as long as there is a monetary value backing it up just as the hot stove is hot only as long as we continue to add some fuel to keep it burning. Hi All I have mentioned the importance of using the example of money in regard to the MOQ many times, as you can see from glancing at some of my previous posts. I found RP's letter somewhat personally gratifying for this reason. Jon