SQUONKSTAIL (and the forum):
I am new here, so it would be at this time quite presumptuous of me to agree with your opinion of posters and philosophers. However, I will say that IF that is the case, we shouldn't be all too surprised. There is a hard-to-resist urge to intellectually understand DQ. Even Pirsig himself walked the tightrope boundary. But to try to understand DQ through intellectual metaphysics alone is quite like taking the Holy Grail beyond the Great Seal (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade): it only results in disaster.
We should strive for INTUITIVE understanding, not INTELLECTUAL understanding, if we want to see the real deal.
However, I concede that the intellectual viewpoint helps us make progress toward that intuitive understanding. Consider the following analogies:
Intellectually understanding the DQ is like
1. reading the Table of Contents of a textbook to understand the content,
2. plotting datapoints to see the graph of a function,
3. reading the Ten Commandments to understand "right" and "wrong"
4. watching a "how to" video on fly fishing
All of these may be quite valuable in making progress toward their respective goals, but to do the real thing takes more.
Why can we not understand DQ through purely intellectual means? For the same reason we will never be able to completely understand everything about the universe: we are part of it. To me it's like a perpetual motion machine. The Bard put it nicely:
"It is like a single hair on the ear of a horse trying to define the equine beast of which it is a part. Only when it recognizes its connectiveness with the vast organism that is the stallion, does it even begin to glimpse the perfection of the animal."
Every intellectual statement we make is conditional; it relies on a set of assumptions. Earlier this century, a mathematician named Goedel proved that under any set of assumptions (even an uncountably infinite set) there will still exist statements which we can neither prove nor disprove. That is not to say that mathematics is not a strong set of eyes through which to view the universe; but it is the responsiblity of every mathematician (such as myself) to understand the limits of logical systems like mathematics. The strength and power of mathematics lies within its UNDEFINED terms: points, lines, sets, elements, etc. The "undefinitions" provide an abstractness which allows mathematics to be applied to many different types of situations. They even allow for mathematics to evolve (Euclidean Geometry to Riemanninan geometry) when things don't quite work (classical mechanics vs relativity and quantum mechanics). But, according to Goedel, mathematics can never evolve into a complete understanding of DQ.
The strenth of DQ is that not only are some terms undefined, but itself is undefined; the ultimate logic: CHAOS. Of course, we only perceive it as chaos (hence the discoveries by chaosticians of order within chaos [fractals], and chaos within order [Heisenberg's uncertainty principle]).
Our eyes can only see 2 dimensions. We need our brain to perceive the third. Likewise, intellectually analyzing DQ can help us "see" a wonderful part of the picture, but we need our intuitive understanding to perceive the whole.
Now, most of you will probably agree with me and claim that you have been aware of this "boundary" the whole time. I am new here, and I have not read all the archives, so I am in no position to determine the truth of this claim. What I do (re)offer is a fresh reminder of the concept. When intellectually discussing DQ, minimize absolute categories, and maximize the use of tools like analogy. The author(s) of the Tao Te Ching set a supreme example, and Pirsig himself makes a valiant effort.
Thank You,
Christopher
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