From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sat Mar 06 2004 - 04:28:19 GMT
Does Pirsig's work help us sort out the distinctions between metaphysics and
the mystical reality?
"Metaphysics is not reality. Metaphysics is NAMES about reality. Metaphysics
is a restaurant where they give you a 30,000 page menu and no food."
Howdy Focs:
Thanks for electing the topic. Even though I don't yet know who the
moderator is, I hope this post gets the ball rolling for this month's
discussion.
I don't expect to see any persuasive cases made for answering the question
with a 'no' and I doubt if there is anyone left who seriously doubts the
mystical nature of Pirsig's metaphysics. Its possible, but I thought the
question would help us focus on the heart of the MOQ. If I understand the
MOQ, sorting out the differences between philosophical mysticism and the
mystic reality to which it refers will very likely give us a better picture
of reality - at least as Pirsig painted it. Here's one of the quotes that
started my wheels turning...
"Phaedrus remembered Hegel had been regarded as a bridge between Western and
Oriental philosophy. The Vedanta of the Hindus, the Way of the Taoists, even
the Buddha had been described as an absolute monism similar to Hegel's
philosophy. Phaedrus doubted at the time, however, whether mystical Ones and
metaphysical monisms were introconvertable since mystical Ones follow no
rules and metaphysical monisms do. His Quality was a metaphysical entity,
not a mystic one. Or was it? What was the difference?" ZAMM (ch 20)
What's the difference between a metaphysical monism and a mystical ONE? This
month's question was already raised by Pirsig long ago, even if it was a
rhetorical question. I think its interesting to note that Pirsig treats
Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist ideas as intellectual as Western philosophy. One
might be tempted to draw a line between religion and philosophy, a line that
Hegal and other have crossed. We see this equation even more fully in LILA,
where Zen meditators, Indian payote eaters and "some of the most honored
philosophers in history" all "share a common belief"...
"Some of the most honored philosophers in history have been mystics:
Plotinus, Swedenborg, Loyola, Shankaracharya and many others. They share a
common belief that the fundamental nature of reality is outside language;
that language splits things up into parts while the true nature of reality
is undivided. Zen, which is a mystic religion, argues that the illusion of
dividedness can be overcome by meditation. The Native American Church argues
that peyote can force-feed a mystic understanding upon those who were
normally resistant to it,..." LILA (ch 5)
"Quality is indivisible, undefinable and unknowable in the sense that there
is a knower and known, but a metaphysics can be none of these things. A
metaphysics must be divisible, definable, and knowable, or there isn't any
metaphysics. Since a metaphysics is essentially a kind of dialectical
definition and since Quality is essentially outside definition, this means
that a 'MoQ' is essentially a contradiction in terms." LILA (ch 5)
"But the answer to all of this, he thought, was that a ruthless, doctrinaire
avoidance of degeneracy is a degeneracy of another sort. ...The only person
who doesn't pollute the mystic reality of the world with fixed metaphysical
meanings is a person who hasn't yet been born - and to whose birth no
thought has been given. The rest of us have to settle for something less
pure. Getting drunk and picking up bar ladies and writing metaphysics is a
part of life. That was all he had to say to the mystic objections to a MOQ."
LILA (ch 5)
Ladies and Gentlemen, start your polluting!
Thanks,
dmb
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