Hi, Horse and MoQer's.
Horse said:
>A state of mind that leads people to accept something in the total absence
of supporting
>evidence.
My Webster's gives "confidence or trust in a person or thing" as the primary
definition of "faith." "Loyalty, fidelity to a person, promise or
commitment" comes in second. Your definition comes in third.
Of course we must have faith in our lives, else we would carry our
possessions about with us. We learn from an early age to trust that Mom
and/or Dad will come back when they leave the room. We exercise faith in a
thousand ways every day. Your paper money is worthless without it. So are
contracts.
Faith is so basic a part of the social level that the social level could not
exist without it. To say that the intellectual level can exist without faith
is like saying it could exist without the biological level, which is absurd.
Each level of Pirsig's metaphysic "inter-is" with every other level. Just as
there is no real S-O dichotomy, so the levels are not discrete.
BTW, Pirsig, or so I gather, is discussing two different metaphysics in ZMM
and Lila. At various times, he is discussing either individual or societal
evolution. On the face of it, to say that the intellectual level only came
into existence in1911 or so is ridiculous, unless he is applying that
statement to society and not the individual. Obviously there have been many
humans prior to 1911 who were operating in all 4 levels. Individuals drive
societal evolution.
Gads, I have digressed. Look, suppose it is possible to live without faith,
if one goes strictly by your definition, although I can't imagine how. It
would require at it's core the acceptance of the premise of no absolute
reality; no Quality, if you will. It would be a grim existence, I think, and
after all based on an unproveable premise (faith, again).
Reason supports (God-Absolute Reality-Quality) just as it can (No-God-etc.)
Reason itself is only supported by faith in human interpretation of
phenomena. Where does one draw the line?
I'd forgotten what fun this is.
Comments?
drose
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