From: Valence (valence10@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Mar 11 2003 - 05:28:08 GMT
MATT
> But this hooks up with a criticism that [DMB] and Squonk brought out
against
> me. Squonk and [DMB] objected to my opening analogy the MoQ and religion
in
> my essay. But as Andy said, "it is only an analogy which he [Matt] begins
> his essay with, it hardly destroys the main thrust of Matt's argument."
> The analogy was made for rhetorical convenience. It hooked up with my
> title and how I've fallen from being solely a Pirsigian philosopher. It
> also hooks up with the end where I offer some interpretations of religion
> in the MoQ, an interpretation that only scratchs at the surface.
>
> This is partly why I'm so flabergasted by the objections to my analogy. I
> would figure that most readers of Pirsig would understand the centrality
of
> religion to the MoQ. Does mysticism not find its most prominent voice in
> religious garb? I don't know, I guess maybe Andy was right, I shouldn't
> have started my essay that way....
RICK
I also find it curious that anyone objected to your brief use of the
religious analogy in the introduction to your essay. I had assumed that it
was a nod to Pirsig's own use of the "Church of Reason" analogy. But more
importantly, the analogy really had nothing to do with the actual argument
presented in the essay (one could skip the whole intro and nothing would be
lost, argumentitively speaking).
Anyway, to those who did voice objections to your essay along these lines, I
can only offer the following...
PIRSIG (LILA ch26 p373)
In his undergraduate days Phaedrus had given James very short thrift because
of the title of one his books: *The Varieties of Religious Experience.*
James was supposed to be a scientist, but what kind of scientist would pick
a title like that?
RICK
Phaedrus almost completely overlooked the philosophy that he would later
come to believe his own MoQ was a continuation of, and all because he was
turned off by the "religious" sounding title. I think there's a lesson in
this that is relevant to the topic at hand and that should be obvious. But
I'll not preach about it.
take care,
rick
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