Hi - as I said in a recent post, as far as I can ascertain, the nearest
thing to an "absolute" statement is exactly that - "1=1+2", because of it's
tautological nature.
EVERYTHING else is a matter of 'faith'. It's faith which is soundly based in
a skilled assessment of probabilities, which skills have been honed over the
history of our evolution. The belief is not entirely random, or amorphous,
but it is subject to considerable variation, according to various subjective
criteria. The reason you (and I ) believe that the sun will come up tomorrow
is bound up with our individual observations that a) it always has done,
during our own life(s) and b) it always has done, even before that,
according to hearsay (slightly less concrete than [a], but still fairly
'hard'), and c) if we're wrong, then so are all the other creatures we might
be competing with, and we're all going to cease to exist, and what would be
the survival value in worrying about that?
So, all is belief, but some is slightly more "absolute" than other. It seems
slightly more certain that, one day, the sun WON'T come up than that it
'absolutely' will, tomorrow. Nevertheless, I put my bets on the latter
rather than the former, because: if the sun didn't come up, how would I
collect?
sorry.
cheers
ppl
----- Original Message -----
From: cozens
To: moq_discuss@moq.org
Sent: 04 October 2000 22:37
Subject: MD 1+1=2
Is this true ? is this absolute ?
Surely that depends on whether you *Believe* it to be the case.
Most philosophical discussions appear to me to come down to what you
believe,
do you believe in God ? do you believe that undefinable quality is the
source of all that exist ?
Whats the difference ?
I believe the Sun will come up tomorrow, although I'm more certain it came
up today.
Does that just infer that I just cant handle the idea that the Sun might not
come up tomorrow.
If it doesn't come up bang goes OUR evolutionary, intellectual & social
quality, static and dynamic.
Pirsig continually refers to the classic verses romantic *beliefs* and
reconciles both by a belief
in Quality. He conducts and plays out intellectual arguements to support his
ideas & beliefs in LILA he
is seeking new ideas, good is a noun.(big deal but to surpass looking after
LILA)
An inquirey into morals, does Pirsig have morals or an intellectual ego in
pursuit of ....
I think its good if the sun comes up.
I find it anoying that I cant choose what I believe even though I have
freedom of choice.
Please shoot the above down in flames,
but not the Sun coming up.
Brian
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