[Marsha] And it's called the Metaphysics of Quality, not the Metaphysics of Betterness.
[Arlo] Because "Quality" is simply another word for "betterness". "The key word is 'better'...Quality." (Pirsig, ZMM) "But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. ... Obviously some things are better than others—but what's the "betterness"? ... What the hell is Quality? (Pirsig, ZMM) What is Quality? What is "betterness"? For Pirsig, they are the same question. "When inorganic patterns of reality create life the Metaphysics of Quality postulates that they've done so because it's "better" and that this definition of "betterness" -this beginning response to Dynamic Quality-is an elementary unit of ethics upon which all right and wrong can be based." (Pirsig, LILA) They do so because of Quality, because "it's better". You can ignore what's in the book in favor of what's in the title, if you want, but its pretty clear that Pirsig ties Quality to "betterness". moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
