From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 05 2004 - 18:17:29 GMT
Hey Ian,
Ian said:
One of my recurring and developing themes is that there is nothing new under the sun, MoQ included.
Matt:
I wouldn't go so far as to say that, that there is _nothing_ new. I think a much more defensible (though not nearly so bombastic and eye-catching) thesis is that when intellectual change occurs, it occurs in small degrees, little by little, not in gigantic shifts (though I still think this thesis is commensurate with Kuhn's ideas). Some of my favorite intellectual history is the charting of these _actually_ new ideas. For instance, Descartes was doing something new, though good intellectual history will tell you that it wasn't nearly so new as he thought it. He thought he was breaking wholesale from the Greeks, but history will show that he only broke in a few regards, otherwise he carried on some of the Greeks' problematic. I think the same thing with Pirsig, which still puts him ahead of most. I don't think anybody can really do more then break new ground in a few regards. If they did, I don't think we'd find it intelligible.
Ian said:
Like you I found ZMM & Lila a compelling read before I took a serious interest in philosophy per se. You're miles ahead of me in terms of academic study of philosophy, but it was already clear you and I shared a similar outlook.
Matt:
I would never say I'm miles ahead of anyone here with regards to philosophy (well, almost anyone ;-). What I am is a pseudo-sophisticate. I sound good, but that's only because I'm really good at imitating people who actually know things. Someday I hope to know things, but that time is certainly not now. Anthony, now he knows things, he's put a lot of work into the business (though I still think he is completely wrong to think that Rorty has metaphysical presuppositions, but hey, that's the way the game goes).
Ian said:
As rules of thumb go however (subject to evolution and change with circumstances) I still find the levels of SQ & DQ hard to beat, metaphyiscs or not.
Matt:
Absolutely. I think the metaphor of static patterns and Dynamic breaks is just wonderful, its one of the parts I carry over post-metaphysics.
Matt
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