From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Oct 14 2002 - 13:57:33 BST
Hi Sriram:
Nice to hear from you again. Your comment about John's remarks about
Pirsig's motives is dead on target. Your making a connection between
ad hominem attacks and social level values devouring intellectual
patterns is brilliant. Liberals, being collectivists at heart, are masters of
ad hominems. As evidence, one need only read David's posts or listen
to liberals like Daschle and Donahue. Thanks for a great insight.
Platt
> You (John) wrote:
> > The MOQ does not offer much help here. Pirsig pursues his own demons, be
> > they the issue of insanity or the death of his son Chris, through his
> books,
> > and all too often we sense that incorrigibility behind the 'rational'
> > facade. (The diatribe against biological values at the end of Ch 24 of
> Lila
> > is an example of this.)
>
> This is an example of an 'ad hominem' attack. It is against the man and
> not the truth of what is being said by him. The fact that Pirsig was
> insane or that his son was killed or even if he was a card-carrying Nazi
> has nothing whatsoever to do with the truth or falsehood of his ideas. It
> is logically irrelevent.
>
> The logic texts generally just say that 'ad hominem' attacks are logically
> irrelevent. However, the MOQ can go beyond this and make an original
> contribution. It says that it is morally decadent. It is a social pattern
> of value attempting to devour an intellectual pattern, and therefore
> immoral. Pirsig's social status is being attacked by calling him insane
> and chasing demons of his past, in order to deny the truth of the
> intellectual ideas. It is a minor form of evil according to the MOQ.
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