From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Dec 12 2002 - 15:11:28 GMT
Hi Matt:
> No, I'm not saying that the Great Chain of Being provides an "objective"
> basis for moral decisions. I'm saying that there are two seperable
> features in the MoQ that can be grasped at for rhetorical purposes: one, it
> puts humans at the top of an ontological pyramid and says they have moral
> superiority. Second, it makes claims of being rationally based. Claims of
> objectivity, which Pirsig helped us see through, are what Marxist's
> attached to Communism. I don't think that's what Pirsig's claiming for the
> MoQ.
Am I to conclude that you object to the notion that humans are morally
superior to, say, chickens? Do you also mean to convey that Pirsig's
moral system should be shunned because Marxism also appeals to
reason?
> My saying, "It would (theoretically) combine together irrational people who
> think that humans rule the roost and rational people who simply want to be
> able to tell right from wrong without any doubt," was simply to contrast
> two disparate groups of people who could (theoretically) fine solace in the
> MoQ. "Humans" at the top of the ontological pyramid are opposed to
> anything else you could put up there, like roosters, and opposed to, more
> probably, people who think that there isn't an ontological pyramid at all.
So if I think humans are morally superior to deadly germs I'm irrational? Or,
that it's wrong for a rational person to be certain about good and bad,
right or wrong?
It seems you're in favor of some sort of moral equivalency in your
metaphorically roost. Or that you fear any moral system because a
clever rhetorician might use for bad ends. No, that can't be because to
define "bad" one must invoke a moral system of some sort.
So I'm further confused by your effort to clarify your position. I hope that
doesn't put me into the category of a "yokel" in your eyes. :-)
Platt
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