Re: MD Pirsig a liberal?

From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Jan 08 2003 - 13:55:26 GMT

  • Next message: Jonathan B. Marder: "RE: MD No to absolutism"

    Matt:

    > I mean, I
    > thought it was widely recognized that Dynamic Quality is priveleged. I
    > didn't think Pirsig said they were equal. He says both are _needed_, but
    > he also says that DQ is the moral trump card over all static patterns.
    > That's what I mean by privelege. If a half of the dichotomy trumps the
    > other one.

    Is there a quote from Pirsig you can find that supports your "trump"
    idea? The "both are needed" quote I cited suggests "equal" to me,
    different of course, but equally necessary to create and maintain reality.

    > I think it is merely descriptive. A deconstructionist would come along and
    > try to "explode" the dichotomy somehow. Deconstructionists are notoriously
    > suspicious of binaries. Following Rorty, however, I wouldn't know how you
    > could do without binaries. Its the reifying of them that's the problem.

    Thanks for making the distinction between Rorty and postmodernists. In
    a rational world, binaries are absolutely necessary, as you suggest.

    > I
    > don't see a problem with the priveleging of DQ because A) I don't want to
    > reify or hypostatize it metaphysically and B) I don't think we can tell
    > what DQ is until much later afterwards. If that's the case, then its a
    > compliment paid to good stuff that happens and we needn't never worry about
    > arbitrarily privileging a choice as "absolute" because we'll never know
    > which choice is the "absolutely good one, now and forever" at the time of
    > its choosing. That's why I don't take the absoluteness of DQ that
    > seriously.

    The results from DQ cannot be predicted. But, if you deny the existence
    of DQ, you might as well toss the MoQ into the intellectual trash heap.
    It's a central "absolute" of Pirsig's metaphysics.

    Any response to my challenge regarding "cruelty?"

    Platt

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