RE: MD Essentialist and anti-essentialist

From: skutvik@online.no
Date: Sat Sep 17 2005 - 08:42:39 BST

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    Marsha and Multitude.

    On 16 Sep 2005 at 8:54, MarshaV wrote:

    > At 11:10 AM 9/16/2005 +0100, you wrote:

    > >"Since a metaphysics is essentially a kind of definition and since
    > >Quality is essentially outside definition, this means that a
    > >"Metaphysics of Quality" is essentially a contradiction in terms, a
    > >logical absurdity." [LILA, p73]

    > Greetings Paul,
     
    > Thanks posting this quote. It's truly wonderful.

    Pirsig in LILA says many things. The above quote sounds as if
    theories - definitions - are subjective secondhand reflections of
    an objective reality out there, and if this isn't SOM nothing is!

    This is the author Pirsig writing LILA in the eighties, not sure if
    anyone will understand anything of his Quality Metaphysics
    digging a escape hole: This is just a game; some favorite pastime
    of scholars.

    The Quality Pirsig says this:

    > But even then
    > the assertion that metaphysics is meaningless sounded false to him. As
    > long as you're inside a logical, coherent universe of thought you can't
    > escape metaphysics.

    We can't escape a notion of what existence is about and this
    common notion IS reality! Which means that there is no definition
    "in here" and a reality "out there". This is also the essence of the
    Newton analogy in ZMM: There was no Gravity "out there"
    waiting for him to discover, only after Newton did the universe
    became a gravity-obeying place. And after Pirsig the universe
    has become a Quality-obeying place. Quality is part and parcel of
    the MOQ.

    More exactly: After Newton the physical reality became governed
    by gravity. Even if Newton was from the seventeenth century the
    formation of the universe became a gravitational event. Likewise:
    After Pirsig - although he is from the twentieth century - the
    inorganic (physical) level is the the Q-universe and naturally
    came first. This is what Pirsig undermines by the annotation
    about inorganic patterns really being intellectual ...etc.

    The MOQ is a farewell to the SOM, but there are dubious
    passages in LILA - and in Lila's Child - and Paul defends them
    all. I don't like to discredit Paul, but .... alas!

    Bo

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