From: abahn@comcast.net
Date: Mon Oct 27 2003 - 15:56:13 GMT
Steve, Wim, Bo, Platt, DMB, and the rest,
Short of time, so I will just conclude for awhile by saying that it seems there is some consensus that Pirsig and the MOQ does not offer us an easy answer to the question of what makes an idea dangerous. Some side disagreements seem to center on the term "value." In the MOQ value is primary, because Pirsig uses value and quality interchangably. I chose to talk about "social values" rather than "Static patterns" because the latter term seemed to me to be too benign. Social Values carries around some more baggage and the poet in me wanted to hang on to some of that baggage. But, I agree that this does not mix well with the MOQ and that "value" does not change within it. However, culture/values/morals/static patterns that individuals live by within societies are subject to change.
According to AntMcwatt's thesis, Quality/value are primary in the MOQ and truth is secondary. I am not inspired enough this morning to further split truth between big T and little t. But, I am talking about truth as something we inquire about. DMB and Platt wish to combine truth with the primary reality in the MOQ. I think the rest of us see the folly in this. When the pragmatist says the best we can do with truth is persuade and discuss that there are better ways to live or better explanations or better predictors of the future and that we come to intersubject agreements about what these better things are, all they are saying is that truth is secondary. That it is a property of language. They are saying nothing about the primary reality--whatever we want to call that. They are saying, however, that we can never make a correspondance between the primary reality and our descriptions of this primary reality. In this sense, they agree with the mystic interpretation of Pirsig. In the MOQ the primary re
ality is called Quality or value, but in particular Dynamic Quality. So, finally, to DMB, I will assert that he still has not pointed out why Pirsig's truth and Rorty's truth will not mix.
Regards,
Andy
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