From: Erin (macavity11@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Feb 25 2005 - 17:00:30 GMT
What is the difference between "purpose" and "direction" ? I think you if you believe "Some things are better than others" (as Pirsig points out how you can you not believe this?) then you have some direction, however vague it is.....does that make "betterness" a purpose?
Erin
Chris Vlaar <c.c.vlaar@gmail.com> wrote:
marsha,
the perfect answer to all what nihilism is not: Platt.
Chris
On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:06:50 -0500, Platt Holden
wrote:
> Hi Marsha, All:
>
> Marsha writes:
> > But in the end, it will be
> > my gut, not words that will determine the next step.
>
> And:
> > Deep in my bones I know there is no answer, there never was a answer and
> > there never will be an answer.
>
> It appears that you rely on your gut and your bones to tell you what's
> true and what's right. In other words, your feelings guide your beliefs.
>
> Pirsig makes it clear that feelings reside in and emerge from the
> biological level, not the social or intellectual levels. "In the MOQ
> feeling corresponds to biological quality." (Copleston notation).
>
> In Lila, Pirsig says feelings perceive quality. "There was a something
> wrong, something wrong, something wrong feeling like a buzzer in the back
> of his mind. It wasn't just his imagination. It was real. It was a primary
> perception of negative quality." (Lila, 20)
>
> In his SODV paper, Pirsig talks about our "sense of value, of liking and
> disliking" as a "primary sense." This sense seems to be a gut feeling more
> than anything else.
>
> Further, if one agrees with Pirsig's determination of truth as being a
> matter of personal taste, like choosing paintings in an art gallery, then
> one's feelings rule.
>
> Contrast this with statement in Chap. 8 of Lila: "The tests of truth are
> logical consistency, agreement with experience, and economy of
> explanation." No mention of feelings here.
>
> And, at the root of the MOQ he proposes a system of rational moral
> guidelines, as opposed to a morality based on feelings: "But what's not so
> obvious is that, given a value-centered Metaphysics of Quality, it is
> absolutely, scientifically moral for a doctor to prefer the patient. 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 H20. We're at last dealing with morals on the basis of
> reason." (Lila, 13)
>
> So what is it to be? Truth and morality based on experience and reason,
> i.e., what is commonly thought of as comprising the intellectual level, or
> truth and morality founded on personal feelings of liking and not liking
> that bubble up from the biological level? Or, is some combination
> workable?
>
> I look to the group for answers. The nihilistic answer, that existence is
> senseless and useless, doesn't "feel right" to me.
>
> Best,
> Platt
>
>
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