From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Sat Jan 04 2003 - 00:57:03 GMT
Mari,
I'll take your questions out of order, to add autobiographical gravity:
>Would you consider partisipating in changing the world?
Yes, of course. I hope I am every moment of the day.
But I'll come back to this one again at the end.
>What lead you to Pirsig?
I read the first 50 pages of ZMM when I was in high school. It didn't
stick the first time, however. The second time was a year later during my
first year in college. This time I had a lot of success with it. What
cinched my allegiance was when I was taking a "Contemporary Philosophy"
course and wrote my final on Pirsig. To do that I decided to read his
second book, Lila. I was captivated, and thus was launched my metaphysical
phase.
>What brought you to philosophy?
This has two answers. First, I was a Methodist for many years and when I
was in my High School Sunday School class, my teacher (a philosophy PhD)
provoked us to be intelligent about our faith. His provocation led me to
atheism (though not for others), but also to a great interest in those
types of questions. Then I took that high school class and read some
philosophy and Pirsig. I really liked it, so I took an Intro Philosophy
course my first semester in college. The second answer is that, during
that Intro class, I read Pirsig again, was captivated, and was asked to TA
a philosophy course. Through my subsequent immersion in philosophical
culture, I decided to major in it.
In a sense, it was my Sunday School teacher, high school teach, and college
professor who led me to do philosophy. In another sense, it was Pirsig.
>What lead you to Rorty?
In an essay I'm almost finished with for the website, I include a long
autobiographical piece about how I got from Pirsig to Rorty. Its also
printed in a post somewhere, but I can't find it. The gist is that I was
looking to shore up Pirsig's philosophy by linking it to other current
philosophy. I'd already made some attempts with Husserl, Sartre, and
Camus. I decided to look into pragmatism because Pirsig makes some efforts
to do this himself. But rather than going back to James (and Dewey and
Peirce) I looked for current stuff. I stumbled into Rorty. I eventually
became persuaded that Rorty is more of what I was looking for (even though,
in saying this, even more people will probably be persuaded not to take
anything I say seriously). I started reading Pirsig with Rortyan eyes,
rather than reading Rorty with Pirsigian eyes. It was a subtle shift to my
post-metaphysical phase, but it occured.
>What are your thoughts about W.V. Quine and this piece by Sullivan?
I've mainly been exposed to Quine through Rorty, so all I say about him
will basically be Rortyan. So, in looking at the Sullivan piece I pick out
the line "W.V. Quine is arguably the most accomplished metaphysician still
living today" and argue that Quine is not best seen as a metaphysician,
he's best seen as leading to the destruction of metaphysics. What Quine
did in "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" was to help lead to Rorty's project.
Why'd you ask?
>Did you wonder at all what my "play" might be about? If yes how come you
>didn't ask for details?
I did wonder, but I figured that pertinent ideas would come out in the
course of your posts. Personally, I do have interest in plays and their
transmission of ideas and the like, but, honestly, I have a lot on my plate
at the moment, and I hesitate to commit myself to something I don't know
the chances of it being followed through on. Now, I coulda' asked, but
that's how much is on my plate. I have many diverse interests and its hard
to keep up on them all at once. If something takes over, I have to make
sure its something worth it. In other words, I have to be persuaded by
more than "I'm going to write a play about the MoQ." I'm certainly
interested in consulting on such matters, but further involvement would
require more.
Unlike several years ago, I have limited time and resources. Tempt me with
your words.
(The other reason I didn't ask was because if you didn't succeed in
tempting me, I would feel bad in turning you down.)
And in conclusion:
>Would you consider partisipating in changing the world?
Certainly, but if what you mean by that is participating in your attempt to
change the world, then I need to be persuaded. There are many ways to
affect change, I just have to be convinced that any particular way is more
important (or, rather, more effective) than some of the ways I'm doing it now.
Which is why I haven't been convinced that making Quality _literally_ the
center of some public, social efforts (like the Christian Coalition makes
God the center of their's) will be more effective than other social
efforts. Quality may prompt me to act, but I haven't been convinced that I
can use Quality to convince others to act.
Matt
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