From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Sat Sep 06 2003 - 21:45:59 BST
Most of my views on this subject I think, by now, are well known. Why don't I use the term "SOM" more often? Because I've hit an interpretational snag that I haven't had time to untangle and I don't want to mislead anybody in the mean time about what I mean. I want to be clear. And, though I can't remember the last time I used the term "SOM", I do remember in the past throwing it in with the rest of those bad guys, Heidegger's Platonism and metaphysics fo presence, Derrida's logocentrism and phallogocentrism, Dewey's "whole nest and brood of Greek dualisms", Davidson's scheme/content distinction, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. I do talk about Pirsig. I do enlist Pirsig in my aid. Doing this, I think, is all the connection I need, even if I do not throw out the specific term he used. Enlisting Pirsig's aid without the term is already seeing the term as transparent. So transparent that I don't need to use it, I just need to reference its consequences.
DMB said:
Pirsig is reviving metaphysics and Rorty wants it dead. Pirsig wants to overthrow substance. Rorty is a "physicalist".
Matt:
The first difference is huge and I have spent time trying to show that Pirsig is ambivalent between wanting to revive metaphysics and kill it. And if not ambivalent, at least confusing.
The second difference is no difference because Rorty has no truck with substance as cafeful readers will have noticed. Substance is a creature that essentialists desire, not antiessentialists.
DMB said:
Imagine if I were at a Rorty site to champion the revival of metaphysics and not only insisted on using Pirsigian terms, but insulted those who asked for explanations. How do you suppose they'd like that?
Matt:
Funny how some people here never seem to be insulted by me, though hardly anybody agrees with me. I wonder what the similarities and dissimilarities are between those who get my patience and those who don't.
I don't know who threw the first punches, and I don't care. All I know are my arms are tired.
Matt
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