From: Matthew Stone (mattstone_2000@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Tue Mar 18 2003 - 10:01:36 GMT
Squonk:
> The latin nihil means 'nothing.' In philosophy,
> nihilism rejects something;
> morals, knowledge, political ideals, etc. For Mr.
> Pirsig to place
> Morals/values as the foundation of a metaphysics
> hardly rejects morals does
> it! The MoQ's insistence upon the groundstuff of
> experience as moral is about
> as far away from moral nihilism as we can get?
> Surely?
> What the MoQ does not rule out, and this is very
> different from denying, is
> that a better metaphysics can replace the MoQ. In
> other words, the MoQ's
> replacement would be a continuation of the moral
> evolution of reality.
> What is more, there is the hope of a political
> morality derived from the MoQ
> for future thinkers to explore. Matt double e hasn't
> got a freakin' clue
> mate.
I wasn't referring to Pirsig as 'less of a moral
nihilist'; rather, 'less of a nihilist' within the
broader picture of how the MoQ fits into contemporary
thought: i.e. how it fits with non-MoQ ideas. You say
that Pirsig's concession as to the relativity of the
MoQ may simply be part of a broader moral evolution of
thought, and thus not nihilistic. Your point is good,
but I think that to say, 'well, our thought may well
be wrong, and in the future something better might
come along, so it'll all be for the best eventually'
is hardly the polar opposite of nihilism. I would also
be interested to know whether this interpretation of
the use of the MoQ is Pirsig's own, as it seems to
theorise on the contingency of the MoQ whilst thinking
within the MoQ, placing that contingency within a
broad application of the (necessarily non-contingent)
MoQ.
Matt S
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