From: David MOREY (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Tue Sep 09 2003 - 17:51:49 BST
Hi
I'll buy that.
DM
----- Original Message -----
From: "MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT" <mpkundert@students.wisc.edu>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:13 PM
Subject: Re: MD Dealing with S/O pt 1
> 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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