Rick and others,
PIRSIG (p254-255)
Science superseded old religious forms, not because what it says is more
true in any absolute sense (whatever THAT is), but because what it says
is more dynamic.
"(whatever THAT is)", indeed. Saying something is "more true in any
absolute sense" is an oxymoron. This sophism is a smokescreen designed
to simultaneously confuse the reader and undermine truth.
It's brilliant!!
Suppose Pirsig removed the oxymoron and said something intelligible:
Science superseded old religious forms, not because what it says is
more true, but because what it says is more dynamic.
Science superseded religion because it was more dynamic?
I could develop a system of thought much more dynamic than science. It
would involve me arbitrarily changing my mind about it every 5 minutes.
On this basis does my system of thought supersede science? I should hope
not. I think being more certain of the truth should be the overriding
reason.
While it's granted that the provisionality of scientific truth has an
advantage over theological truth, the reason science has an eraser is
because ideas can be tested and thrown out if the evidence is incompatible
with the idea. Religion doesn't have this, but the reason it lacks such a
'mechanism' isn't a defect; it's just that the issues theology deals with
and the ideas created to explain them aren't amenable to testing. That's
why religious doctrines stick around. They can't be disproven, only
discredited.
Also, we should be careful not to confuse or over-correlate the dynamic
nature of a system of thought with the dynamic insights of its practitioners.
A priest could have as many dynamic insights about his religion as a
scientist has of his science, but this alone won't make his religion
dynamic. Similarly for the scientist. We could say that dynamic insights
are necessary but not sufficient for dynamic systems of thought.
Finally, it shouldn't be obvious to anyone that dynamic insights, the
ones producing "aha" or "eureka" feelings, are due ultimately to
intimate experiences with an undefined phenomena called Dynamic Quality.
There could be more prosaic explanations involving the way the brain
works that account for these.
Glenn
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