From: Paul Turner (paul@turnerbc.co.uk)
Date: Fri Aug 20 2004 - 15:23:11 BST
Hi Platt
Platt said:
As I suggested, if he were to use "Quality event" as the starting point
of the MOQ, then positioning his examples, like the hot stove anecdote,
as a "low Quality" event might make it easier for readers to relate to
his overall philosophy.
Paul:
Perhaps, but I think he emphasises that Quality events *are* experience
because he wants the MOQ to be accepted as an empirical system and to
distance it from supernatural or ethereal connotations and thus defend
his system from the usual logical positivist attack. This is a recurring
theme in his correspondence since LILA, e.g. his response to Ham's
Essentialism:
"My problem with "essence" is not that it isn't there or that it is not
the same as Quality. It is that positivists usually deny "essence" as
something like "God" or "the absolute" and dismiss it experimentally
unverifiable, which is to say they think you are some kind of religious
nut."
Platt said:
All I'm suggesting is that the MOQ would "sell" more easily if its basic
assumption was phrased differently.
Paul:
Perhaps you're right, although I don't know how easy it is to "sell"
metaphysics in any case.
Platt said:
Of course, I could be wrong. But isn't one of the purposes of MOQ
discuss to suggest possible improvements to the MOQ?
Paul:
Yes.
Platt said:
I think it would be better if Pirsig had come right out and said, "My
initial assumption for my metaphysics is that reality is moral, created
and sustained by Quality events."
Paul:
Then the question is, "What is a Quality event?" The answer then
involves the term, "experience," and we are back where we started.
Interestingly, in LILA'S CHILD (Q&A Section about Note 61), Pirsig talks
about the term, "Quality event," and why he avoided using it in LILA:
"The term "Quality Event" has created some problems. It was first used
in ZMM to distinguish quality from a subject or an object. However many
readers seemed to consider an event to be itself an object. This of
course makes Quality one of a class of objects, and destroys the whole
purpose of the MOQ. That is why you don't see the term "Quality Event"
at all in Lila. (Or if you do, it's an overlooked bug.)"
Regards
Paul
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