Platt and All
You said to Marco:
> Like others I highly recommend Wilber to you. But if you are looking
> for moral principles you'll find them strangely absent from his work
> other than a generalized belief that "the greater the depth, the more
> moral." In his major work. "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality" there are just
> 38 pages out of a total of 763 where he specifically refers to ethics
> and/or morality.
I have earlier "denounced" Wilber (in the "Lila Squad" time) as I did
other writers/thinkers about whom someone said "...says exactly
what Pirsig does..", maybe the well-known zealous tendency of
hitting harder the closer the relationship.
>From this one can reasonably conclude that morality
> is not high on his philosophical agenda.
Is the above Marco ..or?
Platt resuming his post ..I hope.
> Further, his metaphysics
> (worldview) is SOM through and through because he uses the basic
> division of interior/exterior in his overall scheme.
Yes, this is the very heart of the matter, and I consider it
nonsensical to compare the two because they differ from the very
out-set. All in all there are none who has done Pirsigs
metaphysical somersault* (a "somersault" can only be all or
nothing at all). It also shows that many who speak about Pirsig as
....having some good points ...etc. don't understand the first thing
about the MoQ: it's either a stroke of genius or complete silliness.
*) Except "Eastern" thinking, but that is another discussion...
> That the man is
> brilliant there is no doubt.
Agree.
> But he borrows ideas heavily from his
> peers and beneath all the marvelous interweaving of theories from a
> wide variety of sources, I failed to find a single original idea--at
> least nothing to compare with Pirsig's idea that "morality is the
> primary reality of the world." Like you, the simplicity of the MOQ
> appeals to me. (I'm not impressed by complexity though many in academe
> seem to thrive on it, believing that the more a piece of writing is
> incomprehensible, the better. To illustrate my point, try reading
> something written by that academic darling, Jacques Derrida, some
> time.) Also like you I believe there may a better rational morality
> than outlined in the MOQ.
I have never understood the demand for a moral guide. Pirsig has
presented a metaphysics that EXPLAINS the world better than the
SOM, and that's all that counts for me. Remember: ...What is
Good and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these
things?
It's just that I haven't found it yet.
Exactly!
Bo
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