From: Steve & Oxsana Marquis (marquis@nccn.net)
Date: Wed Apr 06 2005 - 16:56:34 BST
Platt from another thread writes:
_______________________
You'll recall Pirsig hesitated to create a new metaphysics because it would
violate the mystic understanding of reality that doesn't require the
divisions necessary for thought. In fact, thinking, according to mystics,
takes you away from, not closer to, reality. But, Pirsig decided to do a
metaphysics anyway, and in order to do it, he had to divide "indivisible"
Quality.
_______________________
Sam writes:
_______________________
In other words, I think it is an error to identify DQ with the mystical
reality, and I think that because Pirsig makes this error he is inconsistent
with his own metaphysics. Consequently I think that Pirsig's work does NOT
help us sort out the distinctions between metaphysics and the mystical
reality.
_______________________
If we accept that metaphysics can only be concerned with what can be bounded
by definition, then DQ must be definable. But that implies a limitation to
DQ, which is exactly what a static pattern is. If DG must remain ineffable
and indefinable then it cannot be part of a metaphysical system. This is
Pirsig's contradiction.
Metaphysics can only work with static patterns of value. The split into DQ
and SQ is not a metaphysical split; it is a split between mysticism and
metaphysics, between experience and experience description.
Back to the Yin - Yang. Reconciliation of opposites is reconciliation of
static patterns of value. Quality, or DQ, cannot be one of the pair just as
the Tao cannot be one of the pair. Having a pair of opposites to begin with
implies a separation (artificial though it may be), and the Tao or Quality
is never separate from anything; it is always Whole.
If someone defines DQ then we have just made it another static pattern. If
it remains indefinable . . .
That MOQ can only work with SQ makes it look like our old friend SOM.
Except that SOM assumes one absolute truth to everything and leaves out DQ.
Pirsig's theory does help us, for it shows that mysticism / creativeness /
right-brain and reasoning / left-brain are meant to work together in a
harmonious whole. Pirsig's metaphysics, with the recognition that that only
applies to SQ, can only be understood if we include mysticism as part of the
explanation, realizing that the 'mystic' part is not a subset of the
metaphysics and therefore cannot be described by the metaphysics. MOQ leads
to something bigger than itself, SOM does not.
Live Well,
Steve
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