Hi Elephant:
At the risk of over grossly simplifying and thus distorting your post
on Plato, here�s my summary of those points I found most relevant
to my inquiry about the role of beauty in Plato�s philosophy:
The Good is a Platonic form.
Truth and Beauty are not Platonic forms.
Truth and Beauty are lower level concepts than The Good.
Plato has two concepts of Beauty:
Beautyof harmony
Beautyof boys
I presume that Plato might agree with Pirsig�s view that:
"Truth is a species of good." That was right on. That was exactly
what is meant by the Metaphysics of Quality. Truth is a static
intellectual pattern within a larger entity called Quality."
This seems to jibe with your statement that �truth isn�t a being but
a condition of statements about being.� And yes, I�m interested in
what the essence of Platonic truth is, and whether you think it
agrees with Pirsig�s view of truth or not.
Now what really fascinates me is Plato�s view of beauty �as the
outward shape of Harmony, and Harmony is something like
Plato�s conception of justice: all the parts working together in the
service of the whole.� Also, �Good is the form, and a harmony
directed at the Good will be beautiful.� (Your point about beauty
NOT being an absolute essence or form is well taken.)
Looking for the concept of harmony in the MOQ we find none
explicitly stated. Nor is the aesthetic or beautiful given any
significant place in the MOQ scheme as described in LILA. Only in
the SODV paper does Pirsig focus in on the aesthetic as a sort of
afterthought:
�Northrop's name for Dynamic Quality is "the undifferentiated
aesthetic continuum." By "continuum" he means that it goes on
and on forever. By "undifferentiated" he means that it is without
conceptual distinctions. And by "aesthetic" he means that it has
quality.
What has always puzzled me about the MOQ is the question,
�Where does beauty/harmony fit in the levels? Harmony isn�t an
intellectual pattern per se. It�s a FELT SENSE about a pattern, like
judging paintings in an art gallery. Harmony is an image reflected
from a pattern that �strikes us� as being a �good� pattern when �all
the parts work together in service of the whole.� Is that what Pirsig
means by Quality? If so, wouldn�t that put beauty/harmony at the
center (or top level) of the MOQ? Is Pirsig�s Quality the same as
Plato�s Good? Do you see a distinction between Pirsig�s Good
and Beauty similar to Plato�s distinction?
It seems what I�m asking is nothing less than comparison
between Pirsig and Plato on the metaphysical �biggies� of Truth,
Beauty and Goodness.
Any light you�d care to shed would be much appreciated.
Platt
PS: Do you agree with Arnold J. Toynbee that ancient Greece held
an outlook on life that was mainly aesthetic compared to Western
culture�s strong bent toward material interests?
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