From: MATTHEW PAUL KUNDERT (mpkundert@students.wisc.edu)
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 21:48:52 BST
Couple comments:
> sq: That is very naughty of you Matt.
Matt:
I did say, "taking things out of context," did I not? Besides, the use to which you are using "discovered" is still just as I commented. You just describe a person helping another person "discover" Quality, as in helping a person find his glasses. The point I am making (and the point I think Pirsig is making) is that we shouldn't think of Quality as something we will find "out there" like a pair of glasses. The incorporation of the word Quality into your vocabulary isn't the same as finding an object on the street.
> squonk: Yes, Quality is an invention, but the term Quality points
> to the
> pre-intellectual source of aesthetic harmony.
Matt:
Hmm, I would read that annotation and that passage from ZMM again Squonk. I don't think Quality points to anything other than another series of words, like "socially approved evaluations" or "undefined".
> squonk: He discovered Quality for himself when another asked him
> if he was
> teaching Quality. Pirsig has considered other terms instead of
> Quality, but
> Quality has allot going for it as a term even scientists agree as
> being valid.
> Harmonious aesthetic again.
Matt:
Its a nice way to try and squirm to think that I'm quibbling over the word "Quality", but you are providing a good foil for my point. People who think that there is a Reality out there that needs to be corresponded to are the people who think that all word play and philosophy is simply "semantics". Reality is out there and it doesn't matter what you call it, just as long as everything you call it hooks up properly. The pragmatist point is that it does matter what you call things (sometimes) because the only things that words hook up to are other words. Saying "Quality" instead of "matter" makes a difference because the words surrounding those words hook up differently.
Matt
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Aug 23 2003 - 21:49:24 BST