In a message dated 3/9/01 4:23:35 AM Central Standard Time,
andrea.sosio@italtel.it writes:
> Ask the
> man in the street about what is the difference between gravitation and the
> law
> of gravitation and you will hardly get a philosophical digression on
> symbols,
> maps, reality, etc. I teach programming languages, and can give this
> example: it
> may take up to one full hour to let the average audience understand the
> difference between a number and a sequence of digits representing a number
> in
> decimal notation.
>
> My humble opinion.
>
>
Hi Andrea
In my humble opinion, you're right. I think one of Pirsig's goals when
writing both ZMM and LILA was to show how various eastern and western
philosophies have played enormous roles in the foundational thought patterns
of the common "man-on-the-street" whether the common man is aware of it or
not. The common man's ingrained presumption that "the law of gravity" existed
before Newton is one of the best examples of this, and I think it's why he
mentions it early on in ZMM.
Jon
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