John, Wim, all
John when you say:
> That is the best succinct statement of the Mystic point of view I have
> found, but it seems to reflect a common understanding. The mystic 'good' is
> the inward search for the divine, and this seems to at best ignore the
> social demand for a fair share of the world's resources, and the
> intellectual demands (I take your point when you say "campaigning for
> freedom, justice etc., which are by the way intellectual and not social
> values according to me") which go with that.
... you essentially sum up the ongoing philosophical struggle that has
been highlighted in modern times by the pragmatists. The questions are:
Is philosophy, the "search for the divine"? Or what is really REAL? Or
the underlying rules, laws, FOUNDATION of all reality. Or, Is it
something else? Is philosophy the foundation upon everything else rests?
Or is it not?
In my opinion the dialectic between Phaedrus and the narrator is a
recapitulation of this issue and in the end a third party, Pirsig, the
author, comes down on both sides of the issue. He opts for the pragmatic
in day to day existence and yet hold out hope that "search for the
divine" the mystic, will lead to a foundation; eventually and
individually. This is the heart of the confusion with the MoQ. Couple
that with the MoQ proposing to be a metaphysics, a foundation, for the
system "pragmatism", which has been and is very skeptical of the
existence and/or usefulness of foundations. And on the other hand
suggests that the individual, ineffable, experience, the mystic, or the
pursuit of it, is the only path humans have historically found to this
foundation. And that we all "know" this experience is "quality".
And we have; What shall we call this?
A pragmatic paradox?
3WD
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