Walter
Death is the most likely sentence for responding to one's own post but Walter
made me do it.:-)
Walter asks:
> Pirsig further
> > >But this highest quality intellectual pattern itself comes
> > >before the external world, not after, as is commonly presumed by the materialists.
>
> Anyone have any thoughts on this ?
Approach One:
Pirsig 108 Lila:
"Trying to create perfect metaphysics is like trying to create a perfect chess
strategy, one that will win every time. You can't do it. It's out of the range
of human capability."
Dave
Just as the chess masters keep trying so too is Pirsig. However where "James'
whole purpose was to "unite science and religion"" Pirsig is trying to mediate
Science/Mysticism, Subjects/Objects, East/West, Mind/Matter, Left/Right,
Realism/Idealism and most other schisms to come down the pike. So under MoQ
rather than either, you get both. And this is where pragmatism could come into play.
Pirsig 363 Lila speaking of James:
"Pragmatism is the one he is best remembered for: the idea that the test of
truth is its practicality or usefulness"
Dave
So when a deer appears in your headlights directly in front of your car
thinking "this highest quality intellectual pattern itself comes before the
external world, not after" will nine times out of ten lead to venison under
glass. So much better to assume its really real, slam on the external brakes,
wrench the external wheel, and scream at the top of your lungs, no matter what
pattern it is. :-) Or as Rand paraphased John Dewey "Act first,think afterward"
Approach 2
Dave
I don't have any problem with the first snip
> >Among these patterns is the intellectual pattern that says
> >"there is an external world of things out there which are
> >independent of intellectual patterns".
Sound like there's an external reality, of course with James' caution (p365) "
There must always be a discrepancy between concepts and reality, because the
former are static and discontinuous while the latter is dynamic and flowing."
But the second snip just throws me for a loop!
> >But this highest quality intellectual pattern itself comes
> >before the external world, not after, as is commonly presumed by the materialists.
If we have four levels of stable patterns each built upon the former: How is
it that the last was present before the first in any sense except a potential
in DQ which is said to be prior to experience and unpatterned?
Dave Thomas
MOQ Homepage - http://www.moq.org
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