From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Fri Nov 19 2004 - 15:28:37 GMT
Ian, Anthony, Chuck, All:
> Plat said
> "What source of morality should [the nation] rely on until the MOQ is as
> widely known and believed as religious moral teaching?"
I happy that you brought this up, Ian, because so far the question has
been either ignored or avoided by changing the subject. Only Chuck took a
stab at an answer by suggesting a nation focus on "civility" and "common
sense" as a starting point. But, the source for such ethical precepts
wasn't identified, and I suggested they raised other questions.
Ian:
>What you seem to be saying is that until MoQ is universally
>democratically
>adopted by (most of) the worlds culture, we must continue to defend god /
>religious moral teaching as the least-bad source of truth ?
Yes and no. What I meant to convey was that a nation (or any group for
that matter) requires some agreed upon ethical standard in order to
survive. So what would anyone suggest in lieu of religious moral teaching?
Also, on whose authority would such an ethical standard be based?
In his thesis epilogue Anthony McWatt opined, "Pirsig's failure to
explicitly mention Buddhist compassion in ZMM or LILA is possibly his
most serious oversight." I think Anthony is suggesting that the religious
moral teaching of Buddhism would be a good basis for a national ethics. If
so, would we not still rely on religion as the basis for social morality?
Ian:
> (PS 2 - Lets' not brand MoQ as "religious moral teaching". Like Zen, it is
> a non-mystical "philosophical framework" for a better life.)
There's a Catch 22 here, too. Pirsig warns: "To put philosophy in the
service of any social organization or any dogma is immoral. It's a lower
form of evolution trying to devour a higher one." (Lila, 29) So it seems
Pirsig himself would object to putting the MOQ "in the service of " the
world's cultures, casting doubt on the assumption of my original question.
So, who will step forward to help me out of these quandaries?
Best,
Platt
P.S. In using the George Washington quote I wasn't endorsing it. I
intended it as an example to show that 1) a nation needs ethical standards
and 2) those standards must derive from some mutually agreed upon source
that gives them authenticity.
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