Dear Platt,
This is a short note to say, thank you for this!
I'm still 'thinking on it' (although I'm fairly confident it's not an
entirely 'intellectual' pursuit) I think Pirsig is thinking on it
too, well prepared to make the 'leap' outside of 'intellect' as well.
As I read the last 10 chapters or so of Lila, vaguely suspicious it
was 'God' he was getting to, but for whatever reason not speaking it
out loud (perhaps for fear of loosing 'intellectual' audience?, or
better yet, not wanting to deprive the reader of the intimacy of a
personal quest/discovery!), I found myself on the edge of my seat,
hoping he'd at least adopt a fall back position, barely able to
contain myself from saying out loud : "say it! Say it! Call it Love!"
to Pirsig ... but he never did...
So, (given my patterns *grin*) "Love" is the path I'm running down,
and have been looking for titles.
One I read last week was of Erich Fromme : "The Art of Loving".
Politics aside (I seriously doubt I'm a 'Marxist' - but know too
little to say for sure***), Fromme is an interesting read. He's
credited with important contributions to the field of Psychology.
(and lived through two world wars)
Here is a Fromme quote from the brief biography in the edition I have :
"love ... is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problems
of human existence ... Love is not primarily a relationship to a
specific person, ... Love is an attitude, an orientation of
character, which determines the relatedness of a person to the world
as a whole, not towards one 'object' of love".
I also delight in a passage he presents on "rationalized cynicism" -
that only a martyr or madman could participate in the general 'fraud'
of love. He argues that this is moral nihilism.
Seems one of the biggest problems I'll encounter in my 'philosophy'
quest is that "Love" is mostly dealt with in Psychology, Psychiatry
and Religion, and even there the waters get very muddy very quickly -
so many variants come into play in love's practise with real people.
And I'm a beginner! - - So this is a plea to all! - I'll be grateful
if anyone can reference for me any writing on the 'philosophy' of
Love.
love,
Tanya
I'm currently reading "A Natural History of Love", Diane Ackerman.
Although she quotes many sources, She gives brief overviews of some
'philosophers' : Plato, 'The Perfect Union'; 'Stendhal meets the deep
south'; Denis de Rougemont, 'Love and magic'; Marcel Proust and the
erotics of waiting; Freud, 'The Origins of Desire'; and 'Attachment
theory'.
*** Why did the Marxist cross the hall?
. . .to get to the other classroom. . . .
>I agree 100 per cent. Several years ago on this site I wrote 13
>Basic Principles
>of the MOQ, and the first one was:
>
>1. The Quality Principle: Quality is simultaneously an immanent and
>transcendent moral force. It created and gave purpose to our world,
>motivated by the ethical principle of the "Good" which is its essence.
>Quality is synonymous with "morality" and "value." Thus, the world is
>primarily a moral order, consisting not of subjects (mental things) and
>objects (material things) but patterns of value.
>
>The basis for this beginning principle was Pirsig's discussion of
>Dharma in Chapter 30 that concludes with:
>
>"Dharma is Quality itself, the principle of 'rightness' which gives
>structure and purpose to the evolution of all life and to the evolving
>understanding of the universe which life has created."
>
>Yes, God as been resurrected by the new intellectual pattern called the
>MOQ and is now known in MOQ terms as the "Good." It sure beats
>SOM's "it was just an accident" answer to philosophy's toughest
>question, "Why there is something rather than nothing?"
>
>Platt
>
>
>
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