From: hampday@earthlink.net
Date: Fri Dec 10 2004 - 18:40:27 GMT
Dear Chin --
Yes, you are quite right. I'll admit I jumped to the concluding part of
your paragraph, giving short shrift to the line about "performing a task"
There is joy in achievement, and we do realize a certain value (Quality?) in
a task well done, whether this is accomplishing it effectively or coming up
with something original in the process. It seems to me, though, that the
joy we feel in doing something well is as much 'personal pride' as it is the
experience of Quality -- in other words, ego gratification. How do you
distinguish the two feelings, and how does either of them afford us meaning?
All of us are beset with mundane tasks that we learn to do almost
automatically -- house-cleaning, washing dishes, taking out the garbage,
shaving, etc. We don't want to have to think about them; they are routines
best gotten "out of the way" so that we may concentrate on more meaningful
things.
I can see that creating something original -- a work of art, for example --
is a different and more fulfilling kind of task, In that case, we are
expressing something of ourselves, and the result is of value because it
reflects whatever meaning we wish to give it. I think what you are
advocating is living one's entire life as if it were a work of art; and
that's an idealistic concept that's rarely, if ever, achieved in today's
materialistic, fast-paced world. If you can manage to live such an ideal
existence, more power to you.
As a philosopher, the problem I see with ANY kind of life-experience is that
it provides no insight or meaning in itself. One must have a
'weltanschauung' or world-view that encompasses teleology in order to find
meaning in existence. For the Western intellect, such a perspective can
only come through a rational understanding of the physical world and man's
place in it (ontology). Empirical knowledge is inadequate for this
understanding; such concepts must be arrived at intuitively, or as some will
always say, by a 'leap of faith'. Many cling to religion as the answer to
everything. This, to my thinking, is simply avoiding the issue by taking
someone else's ideas or stategy and adopting them for our own. In life we
are free to choose and we take full responsibility for actions on our own
behalf. If our actions are not rooted in a personal philosophy -- not just
a set of rules handed down to us from an assumed authority -- then we have
failed life's responsibility to find the meaning of our own existence.
Responding to this thread a while back, Marsha said,
> What I read in ZMM and Lila, was a new perspective. Quality! Wow!!!
Reading ZMM made me want to
> experience the wind in my face, and quality in my actions.
I wonder whether this ecstatic outburst has any real substance to it. Has
Marsha experienced an epiphany over the concept "Quality = Existence"?
That's doubtful. Is all this parsing of Mr. Pirsig's enigmatic 'levels'
leading us any closer to an ultimate Truth (or Morality)? I don't think so.
By avoiding (or outright rejecting) a supernatural, primary Source on the
grounds that it is some kind of intellectual regression, we are left with
meaningless debates aimed at seeing who can express MoQ in more 'creative'
prose. Nihilism is the view that existence and values are unfounded.
Quality is just another word.for 'Goodness'. We can go round and round
defining what Goodness means -- everybody does -- but it's not a
metaphysical concept. It's just the latest expression of philosophical
nihilism.
That's why I'm disappointed.
But stay happy, Chin
--Ham
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