From: David Morey (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Sun Sep 05 2004 - 17:57:55 BST
Scott
Well only Pirsig could tell us. But remember
that rhetoric and persuasion have their merits
and you have to know your audience & times.
I wonder what Anthony thinks about this one?
regards
David M
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Roberts" <jse885@earthlink.net>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: MD Pirsig a nominalist?
> David M,
>
> > Scott [prev]: Even if one wants to keep to a temporal story, which in a
> way we have
> > to,
> > since we cannot imagine eternity, it is possible to speak of intellect
> > before there were people, and without positing an anthropomorphic
Designer
> > God. On the biological level, instinct acts as a conceptual realm by
which
> > the animal can react to particulars. An animal may have never
encountered
> > some other animal before, but instinct -- a set of generalized
patterns --
> > will get it to flee or chase. And on the inorganic level, physical law
is
> a
> > conceptual reality that the physical things will always follow (though
who
> > is to say that physical laws haven't changed over the eons).
> >
> >
> > DM: This is 100% right as far as I am concerned. I think Pirsig
> > leaves intellect on the 4th level with man as so many people
> > understand intellect only in human terms. Pirsig instead simply
> > explains how SQ/DQ manifests differently on different levels due
> > to what emerges as now being possible as the levels are built on top
> > of each other. SQ itself implies universality. You see concepts as
> > essential to universality as Hegel rightly does and therefore say
> intellect
> > where
> > Hegel says reason. Pirsig tries to keep off of these to avoid attack of
> > anthropocentrism. But to me the emergence of SQ/DQ is clearly
> > full of what cunning to borrow a word from Hegel. I take this to
> > be a quality of DQ that emerges on all levels. Even the abraxas moth has
a
> > yearning love of its dream image of the universal light, or of the
> > ideal-lady
> > moth.
>
> [Scott:] I am not sure you are right about Pirsig. If you are, then I
would
> say he is being intellectually dishonest, that he is pulling his punches
to
> keep some respectability. What I think is more likely is that his
> conception of Buddhism is somewhat misguided, and that leads him to
> denigrate the intellect, to see it as something to be surpassed, and not
to
> see it as something to be worked on and purified.
>
> - Scott
>
>
>
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