LS Re: 'Out there'


Platt Holden (pholden@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 29 Jul 1998 13:26:34 +0100


Hi Donny and LS:

DONNY:

What we experience we don't experience as we (each and everyone of us,
but as we (all of us together).

Does this mean if I'm alone I don't experience anything? That can't be
true, but how else am I to understand experience being "all of us
together?" Your example indicated that it always takes two (or more) to
make reality.

DONNY:

One of the really creative moves that Hegel made that sets him apart
from all other thinkers lumped under the heading "idealists" is the
shift from *coqito* to *coqitamus,* from "I know" to "we know." Knowing
is not an individual being at rest but a collective movement.

Does this mean that I can know how to ride a bicycle by just reading or
talking about it?

No doubt I've misinterpreted "cogitamus" completely, but it sounds
something like events believed to be real are not really real but we
believe them to be real because we believe everyone else believes them
to be real. Or, reality occurs according to the Emperor's New Clothes
syndrome.

Against this notion we have our old friend Robinson Crusoe who managed
to deal with reality quite well without another sole around. What am I
missing here?

DONNY:

So what really exists? Well, what really exists are moral situations.
Actually what really exists is THE moral situation --the present one.
All others are abstractions from that.

Does this mean Pirsig's intellectual level, consisting mostly of
abstractions, doesn't really exist?

As you can tell, Donny, I'm confused (as usual). If you would care to
attempt a clarification I'd be most appreciative. I think maybe we can
both agree that the "in here, out there" categories are spin-offs of SOM
and that we need to be deal with them in MoQ terms at some point.
Perhaps your "moral activity of projection" answers that, but I need to
have it more fully explained. Thanks.

Platt

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