From: Arlo Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 26 2005 - 17:25:13 BST
[Platt]
Whether you like to admit or not, those aspire to a"higher goal" than
self-interest do so out of self-interest. Just look at your "public servants."
[Arlo]
Which comes full circle to my original question. What "self-interest" did
Pirsig fulfill by authoring and seeking publication for ZMM?
Was the higher Quality writing it had (to quote you) "motivated by that
which [gave Pirsig] a sense of well-being which in most cases involves
earning money to provide for themselves and those they value, and to buy
things that give [him] pleasure like [Honda Superhawks]"?
Pirsig was in it for the money, after all? That seems opposite of what he
said in the afterward to ZMM, where both the publisher and himself agreed
that "the point of a book like this" is not money or profit. What, then, is
"the point of a book like this"?
One thing I'd say to your comment about self-interest, is that this is
merely a synonym for "value", and is different (as the MOQ shows us) for
differering levels of evolution. For example, I'd say the "self-interest"
you talk about mostly is biological-level self-interest, where my main
interest is my survival over anything else. On the social-level, however,
I'd argue that self-interest evolves from its biological predecessor into
an interest in strengthening and improving social patterns and
responsibility to "do Good" by others. Ditto on the Intellectual level,
where self-interest serves to strengthen and improve Intellectual patterns.
In this sense, Pirsig's "self-interest" in authoring/publishing was not
motivated by a biological-level pattern of self-profit, but a social and
Intellectual self-interest of improving the social and Intellectual
patterns of his culture. I don't think this motivation is unnatural,
indeed, I think only a culture that encourages "self-profit" as the
Greatest Good man can aspire to is fostering unnatural and destructive
behavior. And, immoral too, I might add.
Arlo
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