Hi All!
I'd like to make a modest suggestion about why Straun seems to be having
difficulty with this line of reasoning... the fact is, its not a line of
reasoning at all. It seems to me that in ZAMM Pirsig makes a point of
distinguishing a rhetorical argument from a logical or dialectical one, and
also makes the point that he is using rhetorical style throughout the book.
So this wasn't a line of logical arguments. He was just taking along the
same line of thoughts that he tried in order to come up with the
conclusion. And then he shows how that conclusion is beneficial. I would
agree that the way Pirsig presents this argument in SODV is a good bit more
confusing, but summing up the MoQ as he presented it in the books with just
a few pages would tend to produce that sort of thing, I suppose.
Just a thought,
Matt
>Despite this, the logical gap still pertains. Pirsig has not shown how,
>logically, he comes to the
>conclusion he does. He can dress this up as 'getting warmer' if he likes,
>but it does not help the
>argument. All we have is an, 'It might have been this, but it isn't, then
>again it might have been
>this but it isn't either. In fact it is this.' This is not a valid way of
>reasoning, it is simply a
>bald statement of what is and what is not with no evidence to back it up.
>Silly me for mistaking an
>unsupported series of assertions for an academic paper. I suppose, again, it
>is partly my fault.
>Thus when you write:
>
>ROGER:
>"As clarified above, you have totally distorted Pirsig's argument in the book.
>You are faulting him for inconsistencies in his argument that he himself
>rejects"
>
>and
>
>ROGER:
>"You are totally dismissing the narrative development and subsequent rejection
>of thoughts in UMM Ch 19."
>
>I have to retort that I wasn't dismissing or distorting anything. I was
>taking an argument at face
>value and in its entirety and showing it to be flawed. A complete waste of
>time and I regret the
>effort I put in. We live and learn.
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