From: johnny moral (johnnymoral@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Jun 11 2003 - 08:27:27 BST
Pirsig quotes James:
"There must always be a discrepancy between concepts and reality, because
the former are static and discontinuous, and the latter is dynamic and
flowing." lila p 365
Pirsig then notes that James used the SAME WORDS that he does! Hey that's
great, but look at what James said: the reality is dynamic, and the concepts
(ideas) are static. How could Pirsig ignore that he is using them in the
OPPOSITE sense of what the MoQ does? As this forum is nearly unamimous in
saying that ideas are dynamic, while the patterns that constitute the real,
felt existence of the present are static, I am sure someone here can explain
this discrepancy. Feel free to refer me to what you said in my last
"heirarchies opposite" thread. (I realize that reality is quality, but I
think the reality James is talking about here is more what we mean by the
rocks and trees type of reality or static reality.)
(And note that though I have been a defender of so-called static patterns
and questioned the existence of DQ, I have only been arguing on terms that
were presented to me. I have meant to be a defender of morality and
continuous reality against discontinuous ideas that serve the Giant, not a
defender of frozen statis to the extent that I can't accept the dynamic and
flowing nature of reality, or the idea that things should change for the
better. So I welcome James's description of reality as dynamic and flowing.
And yes I relish his put-down of concepts as static. But at the same
time, guys, don't take it hard: Defending static patterns is easy and
rewarding. Static patterns are good. In fact, Good is a static pattern.
Of course an idea has to be static, othewise it would be a different idea
all the time, or just never really clear in the first place. A fleeting
idea is useless (You should hear all the songs I've composed that I've
forgotten). We want our ideas to be static, that's what gives them their
value and allows them to propogate from person to person.)
Johnny
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