From: Paul Turner (paulj.turner@ntlworld.com)
Date: Sat Jan 17 2004 - 10:56:47 GMT
Hello Bo, JoVo, Matt
JoVo quoted Pirsig:
This is not just an arbitrary social convention that should apply to
some doctors but not to all doctors, or to some cultures but not all
cultures. It's true for all people at all times, now and forever, a
moral pattern of reality as real as H2O. We're at last dealing with
morals on the basis of reason. We can now deduce codes based on
evolution that analyze moral arguments with greater precision than
before."
Paul:
Ah, of course, Matt's favourite "anti-pragmatist" statement. Is this
what you are referring to, Bo? Isn't he just saying that human beings
are more highly evolved organisms than germs, always will be, and no
matter which culture you live in? He is demonstrating his belief that
science (in this case, the theory of cosmological evolution) can support
ethics. He does this by taking an explicitly "obvious" case and showing
that it is obvious because of the gulf between the levels of evolution.
When the distance between patterns, in evolutionary terms, is shorter he
says it is not as clear but that the MOQ can help analysis of moral
issues nonetheless.
I don't think he is saying anything about metaphysics, his or anyone
else's, being the absolute, timeless truth.
Is there another statement you have in mind?
Paul
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