All,
When faced with the horns of a dilemma, be advised of one of the
aphorism I picked up along the way in the construction industry. It
says, "F**k with the bull, and you'll get the horn!"
As most of you are aware I have long been an advocate of exploring
pragmatism as a way of trying to get a better understanding of the MoQ.
My reading lately has been work by Richard Rorty who seems to be
recognized as one of the handful of "Neo-Pragmatists" intellectuals who
it seemed to me based on his published work might be attuned to what
Pirsig has said. So I said what the hell, Why not ask him? So I did.
Subject: Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 10:06:59 -0500
From: 3dwavedave <dlt44@ipa.net>
To: rrorty@stanford.edu
> Mr. Rorty,
>
> In your 1999 essay "Analytic Philosophy and Transformative Philosophy"
> on the stanford.edu web site I read;
>
> > This does not mean that the chief products of humanities departments are books which
> > effect existential transformation. Rather, the principal product of those
> > departments are contributions to Geistesgeschichte: stories about past transformations,
> > especially narratives connecting many successive transformations in social and
> > individual self-images.
>
> For several years now I have been involved in a web discussion group
> dedicated to trying to understand the philosophical merits or
> implications of two books, (one a popular best seller, one not) by the
> same author (Robert Pirsig) which appear to fall into the area you
> describe as " stories about past transformations, especially narratives
> connecting... ... transformations in social and individual self-images."
> The group, MoQ.org, consists of a 100 or so lay people, "non
> Philosophers" from around the world who were all attracted to his
> philosophical musings primarily in the second "not so popular" book.
>
> As you are undoubted aware Pirsig first book, "Zen and the Art of
> Motorcycle Maintenance, An Inquiry into Values" was a bestseller, widely
> acclaimed, spawned one critically evaluation "The Guidebook to Zen" by
> the academic community, and has been used as a source in many college
> courses. However his second book "Lila, An Inquiry into Morals" has been
> by and large ignored save for one dismissive review by Galen Strawson.
> (see forum "Lone man on high seas" http://www.moq.org/).
>
> Given that Strawson is on the hard side of hard/soft, or
> scientific/fuzzy debate and that Pirsig near the end of Lila claims that
> his "Metaphysics of Quality" is an extension of the "mainstream"
> philosophy of pragmatism, and you have made made the transition from
> "Philosopher" to "philosopher" to "literary critic" abet with pragmatic
> roots; it might be interesting for you to comment on Pirsig's claim and
> his "transformative narrative".
>
> What say you?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> David Thomas
>
> PS. That both Pirsig and you "survived" the opposing pulls of McKeon and
> Hartshorne and in the end both chose the pragmatic path, though
> interesting, does not assure that they are the same, or even similar paths.
To his credit, Mr Rorty responded very quickly, (actually before I asked
but that might be a time zone thing) and here is what he said:
Subject: Re: Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 08:29:45 -0700
From: Richard Rorty <rrorty@leland.stanford.edu>
To: dlt44@ipa.net
> Dear Mr. Thomas,
>
> I thought there were some good lines in "Zen and...", but I never quite saw
> why people liked the book as much as they did. I tried to read "Lila", but
> didn't get very far. I guess Pirsig and I just aren't on the same wavelength.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Richard Rorty
As the gore pools.......
...... the questions start to form:
Doesn't this sound vaguely like, a Strawson's caveate ?
But, is the gulf between the "intellectual" society and all rest so
great that we have little, if anything, in common?
And if so,
What about the gulf between those that can't read in any language, and
those that can?
How can there be any hope for "peace in the Middle East" or and an end
to "the war on terrorism" with gaps this large?
If two globally acclaimed academic philosophers, "intellectuals," who
are generally on diameterically opposite sides of the issues both see
little, if any "good" in Pirsig's work while a rag tag lot of a
hundred so "non-intellectuals" scattered around the world do......
.........What is to be concluded?
And whatever it is,
Can it be "Good"?
3WD
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