Richard E,
> thinking more about the buddhist religion.
If you check the MoQ archives you'll find numerous discussions about the
relationship between Buddhism and the MoQ. One could say that a large part of
Pirsig's project was an effort to integrate some of Buddhism's major premises
into a form that Westerners can understand and find usefully.
> philosophically, maybe quality = dq + sq, but how is that of use to us in the way we live our lives???
This seems to me just another way of asking “Philosophy: Who needs it?". The
best answer I've found so far is one by Ayn Rand:
...“Most men spend their days struggling to evade three questions, the answers
to which underlie man's every thought, feeling and action whether he is
consciously aware of it of not: Where am I? How do I know it? What should I
do?..... There is only one science that can answer them: philosophy.
Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man's
relationship to existence... As a human being, you have no choice about the
fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your
philosophy by a conscious, rational ..process or let your subconscious
accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions...” (Ayn Rand, Philosophy:
Who needs it. An address given to the graduating class of West Point on March
6, 1974 published after her death in a book by the same name)
Many find adoption and practice of a religious dogma a perfectly acceptable
and rewarding way to guide their lives, others do not, seeking instead a more
"conscious, rational process." In the end the process is not as important as
the quality it manifests in your life.
>why not be more pragmatic in an approach to analyse quality?
Why not? Pirsig was.
"The Metaphysics of Quality is a continuation of the mainstream of twentieth
century American philosophy [William James]. It is a form of pragmatism, of
instrumentalism, which says the test of the true is the good. It adds that
this good is not a social code or some intellectualized Hegelian Absolute. It
is direct everyday experience." pg. 419
But this continuation is of the "philosophy" of pragmatism, obviously
something different than what you have in mind.
DLT
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