Re: MD Dealing with S/O pt 1

From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2003 - 23:13:34 BST

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    David,

    David said:
    I suggest, we grab what we want, a non-essentialist Pirsig, and insist that's what he really is, so that we can gather as many people on the anti-essentialist side as we can. We are few enough. I never get this emphasising someone's errors thing. Are there any essentialists out there who fancy a discussion with the anti-essentialist faction? Pirsig certainly says a lot that is anti-essentialist I believe.

    Matt:
    Well, the deal is, I have two intentions with Pirsig: I want to put Pirsig's best foot forward, but I also would like to know which foot Pirsig thinks he wants to put forward. I summed this difference in intention as being the difference between philosophy and biography. When I do philosophy with Pirsig, trust me, I always get ripped for "forgetting" certain passages in Pirsig. My reply is that when I'm philosophizing, I don't emphasize his errors. However, just as Rorty did some biography of Dewey in his "Dewey's Metaphysics", in which he critiqued Dewey's own retainment of the word "metaphysics", I would also like to do some scholarly biography on Pirsig. But, whereas Rorty thinks the spirit of Dewey's letter is firmly antiessentialist, I am not completely sure yet if the spirit of Pirsig's letter is firmly antiessentialist. It might take me many years of research and thinking to pull it apart to my own satisfaction.

    So, I am still going to hold off on calling the spirit of Pirsig's letter antiessentialism. I'm just not sure yet on this biographical issue.

    But, when I'm philosophizing, don't doubt that I could give a rat's ass as to if Pirsig thought of himself as essentialist or not. I've been carrying on a discussion with the essentialist camp and pointing out his antiessentialist passages for a year. Doesn't seem to help though.

    Matt

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