David B
While most of your posts are well written and insightfully on this issue you
seem to be trying to earn the title of "Dogma Dave"
Your argument(s) about the position of mysticism reminds me of an early George
Carlin bit called "Seven words you can never say on television". To paraphrase
Carlin "there are 400,000 words in the English language; but some people would
not have you use all the words. There is (in your case one word or concept)
that does not reside on any static level of reality, What a ratio 399,999 to
1. Of all the words in the English language only one, mysticism, resides
outside of our static patterns of reality and it has sustained itself in a
constant dynamic state for untold millennia." Incredible!
Do I detect a little anti religious bias in your positions. So as not to
confuse, I need to give you my religious credentials. My first, last, and only
religious training was two weeks of summer vacation Bible school sometime
during elementary school nearly fifty years ago. So a religious
scholar,fanatic, or fundamentalist, I'm not.
That being said, to deny that mysticism and religion are inexorably
intertwined is to deny history. So if Pirsig's goal to place mysticism on a
more equal metaphysical footing with the "objective sciences" is to be
realized, and history of mysticism is intermingled with religion, from a
practical standpoint one cannot investigate mysticism without investigating
religion, dogma and all.
In so much as Pirsig claims the MoQ to be a continuation of pragmatism you
might find a reading or rereading of "The Will to Believe", by William James
would help you understand this issue better.
Dave Thomas
PS: I'm a charter member. Surely you've seen my commercials for Wendy's. In
the majority of all cases, mine being one, you can't join, you're appointed by
your parents.;-o
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