From: Paul Turner (paul@turnerbc.co.uk)
Date: Wed Aug 24 2005 - 11:52:18 BST
Andrew, victims, and the rest
Glenn asked me, "Why did this paper fool you?"
I wrote the following brief response which is pretty much all I can say.
"First of all, as far as I was aware, 'Richard Loggins' had been around [on
the MD] for a couple of years. I guess I accepted the guy as real if a
little goofy. I clearly still have too much faith in people's integrity.
Secondly, the paper was presented in the morning along with the other
'personal accounts' of encountering Pirsig's work so I wasn't really
analysing it. I never got around to reading it for myself. It was quite
funny and the bit about 'Richard's' vision reminded me of something from my
psychology studies years ago and also my friend's description of how his
perception had to be 'reprogrammed' after waking from a coma following a
serious biking accident.*
Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the effort of 'Richard' who, if a real
person with the alleged difficulties, would have had to have spent a lot of
time writing any essay. I also figured 'he' might have been a little
nervous about the response to his essay. So my email was a note of support
and encouragement. I shall be more careful in future.
It's been a valuable lesson in deception, Glenn, but one I am disappointed
to have had to have learned." [Paul Turner to Glenn Bradford, 22/8/05]
Personally, my initial anger, embarrassment and disappointment have quickly
given way to mild amusement and reflection. I still don't really understand
the amount of bitterness towards the MD which seems to be at least one of
the motives behind the hoax, but one other motive**, offered by Struan
(taken from his website, as referenced by Andrew Bahn), bears consideration:
"...the moral imperative one feels when philosophy and intellectual
reasoning are trodden underfoot by those who should, or could, know better.
I happen to be passionate about philosophy and (although I shouldn't) I take
it personally when 2000 years of Western philosophy are grossly
misrepresented in the way that Pirsig and his acolytes insist upon doing."
To whatever degree I am guilty of this it isn't intentional so it must be
either the negative effect of the brevity necessitated by internet
discussion groups or more likely my misunderstanding of "2000 years of
Western philosophy." I finished my BA in philosophy nearly ten years ago
now and went straight into business so it is certainly the case that I make
mistakes with respect to some philosophers. But this forum is not just for
philosophy teachers who know the whole canon inside out and I do try to read
up on any ideas that I am referring to, time permitting. I do think,
though, that the movement from the MD to an academic conference necessitates
much tighter philosophical analysis, research and reference.
So, was the Conference still a success?
I think so, it was always a first tentative step towards academic
acceptance/development and, as said, the hoax has provided a reality check
in terms of the need to tighten up the 'academic' quality of the papers
presented at the events, if they are to continue. I honestly think that was
understood by the attendees anyway. I saw this conference more as a
'pilot', which is an important first step in all of the work I do, albeit in
the business world. The first thing you do after a pilot study is look at
what went wrong, what went well and what can be improved. We certainly have
a lot to think about in terms of all three.
Regards
Paul
* After a long period in a coma after fracturing his skull my friend spent
several months with impaired depth perception which meant he had to learn to
value other visual cues to determine the relative distance of things.
However, neither 3D glasses nor cowboy hats helped :-)
** Unless this is itself the cause of the bitterness, in which case it seems
a little disproportionate to me.
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