From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun May 11 2003 - 00:58:00 BST
Sam said:
My worry is that 'manipulation of symbols' etc, ie Pirsig's descriptions
of intellect, plus the history of SOM, especially in the last few hundred
years, tends towards the
narrow definition of intellect. If you move away from that, with a fuller
understanding of what
'intellect' is (eg Augustine's 'memory, reason, will') then I don't have a
problem. I suspect
hanging on to 'intellect' might lead to some confusions though, given where
we are culturally.
dmb says:
I forget exactly how Pirsig puts it, but the idea is that we can find
Quality in the gears of a motorcycle AND in the petals of a lotus flower.
The idea is to recognize that Quality comes in many forms, and that what may
appear cold, metalic and ugly at first glance does in fact have a profound
quality, values we might tend to disregard for sentimental or egotistical
reasons, values that can escape the untrained eye or the restless mind.
Don't get me wrong. There's a reason our culture divides the sciences from
the arts and humanities. There's a reason the branches concerned least with
human affairs are called "hard science". In spite of all the criticisms we
might level and all the attempts to correct the divorce between the heart
and mind, Pirsig can still rightly describe two 20th century physicists as
creative artists.
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