>===== Original Message From moq_discuss@moq.org =====
>Hey Rob, Platt,Rick and all:
>RICK
>Now Platt is trying to use an out-of-context quote to IMPLICITLY support a
>position that Pirsig EXPLICITLY disavows in the quotes I included in my last
>posts (the low quality of this logic should be self-evident). Platt seems
>to have combed through the book, found an instance of Pirsig simply using
>the words 'absolutely certain' and is now trying to convince you that this
>use constitutes a philosophical position that indicates Pirsig would agree
>that Physics is an objectively real and absolute truth. However, a little
>context goes a long way
ERIN: That's funny because I had the same image of Platt combing Lila for the
word absolute. I also saw that he took it out of context but what cracked me
up was the sentence immediately before the one he quoted "Whether the stove is
the cause of the low quality or whether POSSIBLY something else is the cause
is NOT YET ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN" I didn't respond to his claim "there are no
absolutes" because I know Platt knows that is not what I was saying because he
has been told many, many times.
Although on the good side I think that this shows us one way Pirsig's writing
is so great. I think that it is great that such diverse intepretations come
about from it. But of course some interpretations are closer to the author's
intent, perhaps those that don't try to distort it to fit their ideas and
Rick's suggestion of how this is done are great.
P.S. I am not going to allow myself to be baited with another claim "there are
not absolutes". You will have to come up with something better than that.
P.P.S. In the "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" there is a part that I
wanted to mention here.
" Thomas shrugged his shoulders and said' Es muss sein. Es muss sein' / It
was an allusion. The last movement of Beethoven's last quartet is based on the
following two motifs. "Must it be? It must be! It must be!" Beethoven
introduced the movement as the difficult resolution. .... Unlike Pamenides
Beethoven apparently viewed weight as something positive.... The weighty
resolution is at one with the voice of Fate...only necessity is heavy, and
only what is heavy has value.
I think "Es muss sein" is Platt's mantra and wants us to repeat it with him.
Kundera explores the light/heavy motif which he shows us of course is SOM but
I think this makes it clear where the disagreement keeps coming about. If the
resolution of "must it be? It must be! It must be" is a transcendence of both
you can't do this by just cutting out the "must it be?" part or the "it must
be" part . It sounds like what Angus was describing as paraconsistent logic.
It also shows how hard it is to talk about this transcendence without
oversimplifying it.
Muss es sein? It must be!
Erin
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