From: Rebecca Temmer (ratemmer.lists@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Nov 15 2005 - 16:08:51 GMT
Hi Paul (Bo mentioned),
I just finished reading Harry Frankfurt's essay "Rationality and the
Unthinkable". He seems to support the notion that Subject/Object logic is
not rationality. If Pirsig wants the MOQ to be an expansion of rationality
based on a balance between Dynamic and Static Quality then the following
passage might be another way of explaining the logic behind that expansion.
SOL is like the 'judgment' that he describes - the OLD static pattern of
intellect that we're trying to overcome... by adding dynamic quality and
coming up with a better way of reasoning.
I'm not sure if I'm entirely convinced by the logic of the argument that
I've strung together above, HOWEVER, I have a gut feeling that it's right
and if someone (Paul!? :) could give me a little help that would be nice. (I
think I'm having trouble with the 'feelings' bit.)
The following is an abridged quote from the above mentioned essay (1987):
"It is widely assumed that a person is acting under the guidance of reason
and that he is in control of himself, only when what he does accords with
his judgement concerning what to do. If his judgment is overwhelmed or
superseded by his feelings, he is presumed to have lost his rational
self-control." [snip lengthy example] "It seems to me, however, that this
way of looking at things is wrong. It is a fundamental error to regard every
surge of emotion against judgment as an uprising of the irrational. To be
sure, there is a rather trivial sense in which feelings are inherently
nonrational: They do not pertain to the faculty of reason, because they are
not essentially discursive. In a more substantial sense, feelings may accord
better with reason than judgment does. A person's judgment may itself be
radically contrary to reason. Therefore, the fact that his judgment guides
his conduct hardly means in itself that he is acting rationally. Indeed, it
may well be that a failure of his will to accord with his judgment is
precisely what saves him from irrationality."
[Frankfurt, Harry G; The Importance of What we Care About, "Rationality and
the Unthinkable"; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988]
Still thinking...
Rebecca
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