From: Horse (horse@darkstar.uk.net)
Date: Mon Oct 04 2004 - 21:22:55 BST
Hi Marsha
On 4 Oct 2004 at 6:35, MarshaV wrote:
> When I was early married, there were times when my husband and I would
> disagree. During those times when we would try to promote our different
> opinions, my husband would eventually say, "You're not being
> logical!'. The statement would usually stop me in my tracks. I was a
> woman, women are not logical, therefore, I was not logical. I was
> stuck. I thought.
This seems to be a get out clause used by men. If in doubt, blame it on 'logic'. Women
are 'emotional', 'logic' has no room for emotion, therefore women are not 'logical'. QED!
>
> So,what to do? I signed up for an undergraduate class: Symbolic Logic and
> Formal Reasoning. (I had already taken a few philosophy classes.) The
> class was great, and I went on to read a number of different books on
> reason, thinking and even the 'scientific method'. It was all absolutely
> fascinating, but there were also some flaws.
Lots of them. Great big ones too. One of the biggest is that reason is synonymous with
logic.
>
> I began listening to people, educated and uneducated. My experience was
> that very few people in their normal lives, both home and
> social/professional, both male and female, use 'formal logic'. The case
> that most people (male or female) use to present their perspective includes
> lots of stuff other than logic.
>
> There is lots of LOGIC used on this elist. It's all extremely
> interesting. But if it's not a tool that humanity really uses, how does
> any of this apply to 'living a life'??? I doubt that most people (West)
> ever have considered making life choices based on Quality.
I'd say they do it all the time. They ask themselves "which is better, X or Y?" and go with
the best choice - unless they're a bit dim. How many people do you know who would
consciously go with the worst choice. It all depends on what you consider to be best
though.
> (Maybe religion
> tries to guide them, but....) If you're not looking to disseminate a
> useful philosophy, what are you trying to do?
Folk on the list have a variety of reasons for contributing. I think that most that contribute
are trying to figure out the best interpretation of Pirsig's work. Everyone comes at it from
different angles, some intersect some don't. I'm not sure that there is a single truth when
it comes to the MOQ - could be wrong though.
>
> Where are the women? If there are no women on this list, is it because
> they have not felt invited? Have you been intimidating? Do you really
> think their voice is not valuable? Do you think they do not seek quality,
> or Quality? Do you think Quality would exclude the
> feminine/Feminine? Where are the women on this list?
Back in 1997 the original Lilasquad mailing list was started by a woman - Diana
McPartlin. Probably one of the best philosophers we've had on this list - I miss her a lot.
Look up her posts in the archives, there are a lot of them and they make a great deal of
sense.
Maggie Hettinger was another early contributor who was an excellent philosopher. You
can read her essay on the forumu pages of the web site. Lithien certainly livened up the
debate in the early days whilst Mary Wittler brought humour and good sense to the
forum. These stand out but there have been plenty of others. It has to be said though
that the majority of contributors to the list have been male. But this is pretty much the
case with philosophy in general, I think. Don't ask me why though as I see no reason
why women shouldn't be as good at philosophy as men. Perhaps it's to do with the male
ego! We've got far too much of it!
I don't think the women on this list have been intimidated any more than anyone else - I
certainly wouldn't accept it if it occurred and would take steps to stop it immediately if it
did occur.
I'd like to see more women on the list to give it a better balance but I can't force anyone
to join, contribute or stay if they don't want to do so.
Do you feel you have been intimidated at all? You probably know more about why
women wouldn't join the list than most of the male contingent so how about a bit of
insight into the subject.
Cheers
Horse
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