From: Valence (valence10@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Jun 27 2003 - 16:36:32 BST
Hi Pi,
> On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 11:39:10AM -0400, Valence wrote:
> > [snip]
> > RICK
> > I believe that Bacon is simply praising writers who describe what they
see
> > instead of what they'd prefer to see. I agree with him. We need such
> > people.
PI
> I have come to believe that there is no difference between 'describing
what one sees' and 'what one prefers to see'.
RICK
Guessing at what you mean by this one-liner, I'm not unsympathetic to the
idea that our preferences direct our attention to a certain extent. But I
think you've overstated it. When I wake up in the morning and look in the
mirror, I'd prefer to see someone that looks like Brad Pitt, and though I
might think I look more like the famous star than I do, I still just see me.
When I look at my girlfriend I'd prefer to see someone that looks like
Cameron Diaz, I may overstate her resemblance to the actress, but of course
I don't "see" Cameron Diaz laying next to me when I wake up in the morning.
I prefer that Robert Pirsig's philosophy was taken more seriously by
academic and 'professional' philosophers and yet... well, you know.
Obviously, I could go on endlessly about the things I'd prefer to see but
don't and I'd suspect we all could. And while there may be some ultimate
philosophical sense (that most MoQers may or may not agree on) in which our
picture of the world can be totally reduced to a picture of our preferences,
I think that sense is just too ultimate to be useful when interpreting the
Bacon quote... I know what he meant... I think you do too.
take care
rick
The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits. -
Albert Einstein
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Jun 27 2003 - 16:40:13 BST