Hi All:
Once in awhile (a great while) it's good to step back and ask why we
are discussing the MOQ and philosophical matters in general. Today I
happened across an article about Britain's moral philosopher, Mary
Midgley, who gave the following answer to the question, "Why
philosophize?"
"People think of philosophy as a special and rather grand subject cut
off from others, something you could put on a mantlepiece. I think it is
much more like plumbing. The sort of thinking that people do even in
the most prudent, practical areas has a whole system of thought under
the surface which we are not aware of. Then suddenly we become
aware of some bad smells, and we have to take up the floorboards
and look at the concepts of even the most ordinary piece of thinking.
The great philosophers of the past didn't spend their time looking at
entities in the sky. They noticed how badly things were going wrong,
and made suggestions about how they could be dealt with."
Not only is that a fine description of Pirsig as a philosopher but also
describes the prime motivating force behind our discusssions.
In the article, Midgley goes on to laud the Gaia concept--a concept I
find depressingly limited. But for those interested the whole article is at:
http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns23155
Regards to fellow plumbers,
Platt
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