Hi Yaron:
Welcome to the club. You asked:
> Pirsig writes: "Obviously some things are better than
> others... but what's the 'betterness'?",
>
> I wonder why the quoted answer by Pirsig himself isn't enough.
>
> Betterness, or quality, is the event of minds (subjects) come aware with
> the matter (objects), or in other words, it's the mental judgment of humans
> to the world around them. This judgment is built on all the patterns Pirsig
> described as "static patterns of value", of course. Our judgment of
> quality, or betterness, is based upon our inorganic, biological, social and
> intellectual patterns. But is there a reason to think that quality exists
> separately outside the human mind? Does love exist outside the human mind?
> Does greed?
You questions raise a more basic one. "Does anything exist separately
outside the human mind?" If the answer is "Yes," a follow up question is
"How do you know?" A related question that someone is bound to ask
is, "How do you define 'mind'?"
Such questions lie at the heart of philosophy. If you seek the answers,
you've come to the right place. For starters, may I suggest you review
the archives of posts to this site.
A very brief but I think accurate answer to your question about whether
Pirsig's "Quality" exists "outside the human mind" was given recently in
a post by Matt dated 8/20/02. He said:
"Instead of placing consciousness and free will in humans, Pirsig places
them in the very fabric of reality. Quality is undefined. It is the 'real world.'
it is also where the value for ethics and morality exist."
The reasons why Pirsig places consciousness (experience) "in the very
fabric of reality" is explained in detail in LILA. As he says modestly near
the end of Chapter 5, by doing so "things become fabulously more
coherent."
Platt
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