Matt, all
When you say:
> When reading Rorty's essays, half the time I'm going "Yah, that can fit with Pirsig" and the
> other half I'm going, "Ah, no, maybe not."
My feeling exactly.
> Pirsig, when talking like this, fits very well into the mold of Post-Kantians, which Rorty
> would applaud. But then when Pirsig starts talking about the Metaphysics of Quality
> (which is a few parts of ZMM and almost all of Lila) he sounds
> like Kant and the foundationalists.
I agree, in fact there is that quote in Lila where Pirsig claims that
one reason he settled on metaphysics is that it is a "foundation" that
he could slide under the whole edifice of philosophy, so that he didn't
have to rebuild the whole thing. And then there is the ultimate
"foundation" the hope, or potential Pirsig reserves for individual
mystic experience. Even though there has been a general aversion to
"foundations" or "metaphysics" throughout the pragmatic tradition most
(James, Dewey, et al) if not all have developed some sort of meta-foundation.
But the case could also be made the before or while Rorty was developing
the theory that novels are a form of philosophical dialogue (possible as
more viable form); Pirsig was consciously changing the form (novel cum
biography cum philosophical tract) doing just what he was proposing.
Then there is historicism and the language aspects of static quality.
The hierarchy of static quality can be viewed as a summary of the
current "best guess" of historical timeline of reality from a human
perspective. And each level has a distinct language , vocabulary, or
family of languages, (morals) hence the problem inherent of using the
language of one when talking about the others.
But the issue that I find most disconcerting is that both "Kantian's
foundationalists" ie Strawson, "post-K's" ie Rorty can find little value
in Pirsig's work. Yet on the "common man" public level many do. This
begs the question, not only which group has a better handle on reality,
but also are "Public Intellectuals" so far divorced from the public as
to truely be speaking a language that is incomprehensible to them? And
if so, What is their value?
3WD
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