> FOCUSERS: > > SOM that seems to attract so much blame is also described as, 'a straw > man, a position held by no-one'. Who exactly does hold a purely SOM > position? Who completely denies the existence of Quality? If nobody, or > very few people, who or what are we criticising? > > DMB ANSWERS > SOM is not a specific "ism" advocated by a particular individual, its > much > deeper and broader than. Pirsig uses the phrase SOM to describe the flaw > ' > common to many different kinds of dualism. I think his point is that all > these differing forms of dualism suffer from the same mistaken > assumption. > That single mistake has taken many shapes and has been described in lots > of ways. By calling it SOM Pirsig is pointing to the distinction between > subjects and objects as the root cause of mistaken dualism of any shape. > SOM is the basis of our modern scientific world view, it is the basis of > our rational industrial culture. Ken Wilber, puts it this way on pages 58 > and 59 of "A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYTHING".... > > "...the old paradigm that everybody doesn't want is the enlightenment > paradigm, which is also called the modern paradigm. It has dozens of > names, ... the Newtonian, the Cartesian, the mechanistic, the mirror of > nature, the reflection paradigm. ... And the fundamental Elightenment > paradigm is known as the representational paradigm. This is the idea that > you have the sef or the subject on the one hand, and the empirical or > sensory world, on the other, and all valid knowledge consists in making > maps of this empirical world, the single and simple "pregiven" world. And > if the map is accurate, if it correctly represents, or corresponds with, > the empirical world, then that is truth." > > The MOQ is supposed to be post-modern, where SOM is the modern view. Lots > if folks are thinking about a better paradigm, Pirsig is hardly unique in > recognizing the limits of modern objective rationality. > > SOM isn't an "ism", it is the larger framework within which all those > "isms" exist. > > Thanks for your time, DMB > > > MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
