Greetings,
Platt writes of the unspoken assumption of unbelievers being the undeniable moral value of truth. It
was clear to me from the outset that this relied upon a re-invention of the word 'moral' and this
was shown to be the case when Platt presented his definition.
Platt:
"Morality is what’s good, right, true or beautiful.”
The problem is that this is not what is meant by morality. Morality is entirely concerned with the
goodness or badness of human behaviour. It is not surprising that if the 'unbeliever' is confused by
the terms he is using, then he will be even more confused by the argument that Platt presents.
At issue here is not my objection to Pirsig re-inventing definitions of perfectly good words
(although I object to that also); it is the way that this obfuscation is designed purely to
establish a deeply flawed point. There is a huge and vital difference between the 'good' of utility
(e.g. 2 + 2 = 4 is a good answer) and the 'good' of morality (e.g. It was good of you to help that
old lady across the street). What Pirsig (and now Platt) has done is to reduce the 'good' of
morality to the 'good' of utility. In doing so they advocate an irredeemably amoral metaphysical
position. Yes, that is what I mean. The MoQ has nothing whatsoever to contribute to debates about
morality, simply because it does not recognise anything beyond functional uses of the term 'good.'
Platt can repeat his point that every assertion is a moral judgement after everything I (or others)
say if he so desires. Without resorting to comments about his ancestry I will simply repeat my point
that he should look up morality in a dictionary. If Platt then comes back at me and tells me that
the dictionary is wrong and that 2 + 2 = 4 is a moral assertion, I will rightly conclude that he is
(despite his protestations) some sort of new age nut whose moral foundation is as insubstantial as
castles in the sand.
Struan
------------------------------------------
Struan Hellier
< mailto:struan@clara.co.uk>
"If you say that everything is moral then that means morality is everything, which reduces to
everything is everything, which means nothing." (Struan - after Pirsig)
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