From: Steve Peterson (peterson.steve@verizon.net)
Date: Wed Nov 12 2003 - 02:07:24 GMT
Hi Nathan,
> I don't mind you having a laugh at my expense because I recognize the humour
> in my position. It does sound quite absurd.
I'm glad you took no offense. Certainly none was intended, and I wasn't
laughing at you.
> I recall Descartes' dictum that the ONLY thing he was positively sure of
> was, that he existed and Descartes' thought held the mind of thinkers for
> literally centuries. And now, here I come with some preposterous statement
> that questions all of this.
Your absurd conclusion follows quite logically from your assumptions. My
point was to get you to check your premises.
> But I am not putting you on or playing with you and I do sense the problem
> of sunsets you refer to and the incredible feeling of getting to be a father
> for the first time and the sweet taste of wine and food and sex and
> etc...How is that merely chemicals and the dance of molecules?
Right on!
Remember that Pirsig suggests we be suspicious of the word "just" which is
like your "merely." I like how you've emphasized the importance of
maintaining a sense of wonder in the face of all the "justs."
> But if I exist, where did I come from? And where do I go? And what happens
> to a person who has a stroke and becomes a different person? Where did the
> old one go and where did the new one come from?
>
> And since all of my molecules are exchanged over the course of time, why
> should I work hard today for somebody who I will share nothing physical with
> and will exist years from now?
>
> (The person who went through high school and university and married and had
> children is not me except that I carry his memory. The cells that composed
> his body have been eliminated and new cells have replaced them).
>
> ZMM touches on these themes, doesn't it? I like the questions it raises and
> like the questions you raise also.
Yeah. These are the sorts of questions that Pirsig talked about in the
after word to ZAMM when he writes about the death of his son.
Regards,
Steve
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