Re: MD Mysticism and the appearance/reality distinction

From: Matt the Enraged Endorphin (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 02 2003 - 04:52:09 BST

  • Next message: Matt the Enraged Endorphin: "Re: MD Mysticism and the appearance/reality distinction"

    Rick, DMB, Sam,

    Rick said:
    I think I'm with DMB on this one. To Pirsig, 'Reality' = 'Quality'.
    'Static and Dynamic Quality' are each aspects of the experience of Quality
    (reality).

    Matt:
    Here's the thing: I want to read Pirsig this way. What makes me pause is
    the idea of unmediated v. mediated experience, which is why I think Rick is
    right in saying, "perhaps aligning 'Dynamic and static quality' with
    'unmediated and mediated experience' isn't quite the best way of thinking
    about it." I want to junk the distinction between unmediated and mediated
    experience. I think it is a remnant of an appearance/reality
    distinction. I think Pirsig is thinking about it this way, though. The
    idea of "pre-intellectual awareness" as a description of DQ, which is then
    privileged, also gives me pause. Even more, its when Pirsig says things
    like, "The value is _between_ the stove and the oaths. _Between_ the
    subject and the object lies the value. This value is more immediate, more
    directly sensed than any 'self' or any 'object' to which it might be later
    assigned. It is more _real_ than the stove." [emphasis Pirsig's] More
    real than the stove? It's statements like those that make me think that
    Pirsig's up to more than DMB would have it. And I don't like what he's up to.

    So, I want to read Pirsig the way DMB, Rick, and Sam read him (with respect
    to experience). I'm just not convinced that Pirsig reads himself that way.

    Matt

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