From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Oct 24 2002 - 15:05:57 BST
Hi Sam:
I'm keeping an open mind on your campaign to make the intellectual
level the "individual level," but I'm running into some problems with your
interpretation of Pirsig's writings. For example, you say:
> Hence the concern of 'human
> rights' (which is a social pattern of value directed by the fourth level),
> in order to preserve those things that are of Quality. Amnesty
> International does not exist to preserve the possibility of intellectual
> innovation; it exists to save people, because people are valuable, they
> have quality.
But Pirsig says:
"It says that what is meant by "human rights" is usually the moral code
of intellect-vs.-society, the moral right of intellect to be free of social
control. Freedom of speech; freedom of assembly, of travel; trial by jury;
habeas corpus; government by consent-these "human rights" are all
intellect-vs.-society issues." (Lila, 24)
This appears to be in contradiction to your idea of human rights
because the rights Pirsig identifies are specifically to protect intellect
from society, not because, as you say, "people are valuable." In fact,
you may recall that Pirsig calls the usual appeal to human rights a
"soup of sentiments," that is, having no rational foundation. If Amnesty
International has a rational framework to support its moral code I'd like
to see it. To say "people have quality" is a noble wish, but hardly a
universal experience.
Also I'm suspicious of your appeal to the ideas in ZMM being "better"
than those in Lila. Since the latter was written some time after ZMM,
one can reasonably assume that it represents Pirsig's well-considered
thoughts after reviewing what he wrote in ZMM. He had second thoughts
about a lot of what he asserted in ZMM including the romantic/classic
split.
Finally, I'm not convinced that what people think about themselves is
the determining factor in level definition. But that aspect of your proposal
has yet to be settled in my mind.
Platt
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