From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Mon Sep 22 2003 - 11:50:51 BST
Hi Platt,
I wanted to make a brief comment on the question of Pirsig's originality. You said:
> Pirsig far from original? Where in Northrop or any other philosopher or
> writer past or present will you find an assumption like this:
>
> "Because Quality is morality. Make no mistake about it. They're
> identical. And if Quality is the primary reality of the world then that
> means morality is also the primary reality of the world. The world is
> primarily a moral order." (Lila, ch.7)
>
> That can hardly be called a "prevalent world-view." As far as I know,
> it's original with Pirsig. Reality is morality? Huh? The man must have
> missed his morning medication. :-)
To say that the world is primarily a moral order is, as I understand it, a rephrasing of the
traditional understanding of creation, ie that the created world is both an expression of the divine
creator (it shares in His nature, ie goodness, ie value, Quality) and something which cannot be
separated from the divine creator. It is axiomatic in theology - so whilst not a 'prevalent
world-view', it's not that obscure either.
Augustine: "I beheld all other things that are beneath Thee, and I saw that they had neither any
absolute being, nor that they had absolutely no being at all. They have a being because they are of
Thee; and they have no Being, because they be not what Thou art." (Confessions ch 7)
Aquinas: "...as long as a thing has being, God must be present to it, according to its mode of
being...Although corporeal things are said to be in another as in that which contains them,
nevertheless spiritual things contain those things in which they are; as the soul contains the body.
Hence also God is in things as containing them: nevertheless by a certain similitude to corporeal
things, it is said that all things are in God; in asmuch as they are contained by Him." (Summa
Theologica, 8.i)
I see Pirsig as giving an old idea new linguistic clothes (reality is morality is Quality = reality
is God).
Sam
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