From: Scott R (jse885@spinn.net)
Date: Mon Apr 21 2003 - 05:40:01 BST
Platt,
> But would you agree that Pirsig's use of Quality and it's subdivisions
> static and Dynamic are, for his philosophy, axiomatic?
Yes and no. They do not have the power that mathematical axioms have of
implicitly defining the key terms so that one can deduce properties from
them while staying within the system. Iin the case of arithmetic, just from
the axioms one can produce such things as "2 + 2 = 4" and Goedel's theorem.
On the other hand, from mathematical axioms one can't say anything about
value,
They do share with mathematical axioms the property of being a starting
point, but that's about all. In the axioms of arithmetic, the meaning of
"number" is fully self-contained. But we need to add our intuitions of
"quality", "dynamic", and "static" to make sense of Pirsig's trio. Further,
we have to apply our knowledge of the world to use them to organize that
knowledge. I would call them "verbal (or conceptual) starting points", not
axioms.
- Scott
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