Hey Platt...and Erin and Bard and all,
PLATT
> I wonder what you guys have to say about the following quote from LILA:
>
> "But what's not so obvious is that, given a value-centered Metaphysics
> of Quality, it is absolutely, scientifically moral for a doctor to prefer
the
> patient. This is not just an arbitrary social convention that should apply
> to some doctors but not to all doctors, or to some cultures but not all
> cultures. It's true for all people at all times, now and forever, a moral
> pattern of reality as real as H20. We're at last dealing with morals on
> the basis of reason."
RICK
The wonderful thing about tiggers is that tiggers are wonderful things.
Pirsig has neither contradicted himself, nor misspoke. We simply must read
carefully...
The key words in this paragraph are all too easy to miss, but they come
right in the first line, "...GIVEN a value-centered Metaphysics of
Quality..." Pirsig is explicitly pointing out that the deductions in the
subsequent lines are only 'absolute' if one has already pre-assumed the
principles of the MOQ. Since those very principles state that "...the
patient has moral precedence because he's at a higher level of evolution
(LILA p183)" the conclusion is pre-ordained. It's only as 'absolute' as
A=A. It's the 'absoluteness' of deduction. It's a tautology (like those
darn tiggers). It's true for all people at all times, now and forever,
GIVEN a value-centered Metaphysics of Quality.
But what's most important is that nowhere does this paragraph insist that a
value-centered MOQ is the one exclusive truth. In fact, even evaluated from
WITHIN the MOQ, the paragraph is carefully qualified (in the 1st line of the
3rd full paragraph on 183) to note that its conclusion only holds, "In
GENERAL..." and with "...all other things being equal."
No contradictions or misstatements here, only beautifully subtle rhetoric...
rick
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