Hey all,
Just some quick thoughts on a brief section from R.M.P.'s letter to Bodvar.
PIRSIG:
"...The question of "How do you justify the statement that Quality equals
reality?" was the best [criticism]. The correct answer from a MOQ
perspective is,
"by the harmony it produces"..."
RICK:
A disappointing response to a provocative question. Declaring that a
proposition produces "harmony" is megar support for its veracity.
Furthermore, I think Pirsig was slightly careless in addressing this
statement as the "CORRECT answer from an MOQ perspective. I don't think
that this kind of question has any "correct" answer, from any perspective.
Answers to this sort of question can only be convincing or unconvincing
(persuasive or unpersuasive, etc.). And even Pirsig seems to characterize
his own answer as the latter...
PIRSIG:
"....but this answer is only for people who already
understand the MOQ. Those who don't can't see the harmony and for them this
answer is meaningless."
RICK:
Rhetoric-free translation: This answer will only convince those who are
already convinced. It is therefore, by definition, unpersuasive....
I think Pirsig would been better off refering to this statement as the
"best" answer from an MoQ perspective... However, if this is the best way to
justify the singly most important, underlying tenant of MoQ, our efforts to
"spread the word" may be doomed.
Besides, if the interactions of this forum are to be considered as evidence,
the MoQ produces very little "harmony." As I have noted on prior occasions,
the members of this forum all seem to agree that Pirsig (mostly) has the
right idea, but we seldom agree on what that idea actually is. A quick
browse
through the archives will demonstrate quite convincingly that very few of us
agree to any meaningful extent on even the fundemental aspects of the MoQ,
muchless the exotic ones. Have any of our monthly topics ever resulted in
anything even close to a unanimous conclusion???
As for Struan, his critique is (unfortunately) right on the money. Aside
from the brief reference to harmony, Pirsig adds no additional support for
the propostion that Quality=Reality. The issue he does address resolves
itself pretty easily... After all, I've never met anyone who would deny (in
every sense) that somethings are better than others. Has anyone?
Rick
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