From: Glenn Bradford (gmbradford19@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Apr 10 2004 - 23:16:50 BST
Rick, Hugo,
Rick wrote:
"I believe the quotes previously presented support the
notion that Pirsig sees static/dynamic as only one
possible metaphysical division of Quality. This would
suggest that he does see "Quality" as more primary
that DQ and SQ (if other divisions of Q are possible,
than how could it not be 'more primary' than one
particular split?). This is not to suggest a trinity,
rather I think he's suggesting that static/dynamic (or
any other metaphysical division like romantic/classic,
subject/object) only exist as concepts within human
understanding; Intellectually adequate, but ultimately
incomplete descriptions of Quality, the undivided
reality that exists prior to and could never fully be
contained within any human understanding. But I hope
we can discuss this some more as I believe Pirsig's
writings on the subject certainly warrant further
exploration."
One could argue that SOM is a metaphysics (albeit one
that no one completely believes), yet it makes little
sense to call SOM a Quality metaphysics unless the
constituents of its first cut are kinds of Quality,
and this would only happen if you were convinced that
subjects and objects are not really subjects and
objects but instead kinds of Quality. In short, saying
that SOM or any metaphysics you can think of is really
a Quality metaphysics in disguise is less an insight
than it is a demonstration of the extent of Pirsig's
bias.
Pirsig says in LC that "ideas come first" except for
DQ, which exists prior to ideas. So if this is true
then how could Pirsig also think that the Dynamic part
of static/dynamic Quality *only* exists as a concept
within human understanding? Admittedly, there is a
certain difficulty about using terms like Quality,
Dynamic Quality, and static quality and being
completely understood because they serve dual
functions as ideas in and of themselves and as
pointers to other aspects of reality, but since ideas
and reality are so intimately intertwined in the MoQ,
as they are in any metaphysics based on philosophical
idealism, it is often impossible to set straight the
system's interior logic.
Hugo dug up the ch. 9 quote:
"In the past Phaedrus's own radical bias caused him to
think of Dynamic Quality alone and neglect static
patterns of quality."
His own radical bias makes him forget about static
quality many times after the first 40 chapters. Check
out how he throws around the term quality when he is
clearly speaking of DQ in his 2000 letter to Bodvar.
http://www.moq.org/forum/Pirsig/letter2.html
Hugo:
"Has anyone noticed that each book contains 32
chapters? Put together is 64, just the number of
hexagrams in the I Ching. Coincidence?"
Oh for goodness sake.
Hugo:
"Does his explanation help us understand mystical
reality? As much as a description of the colour red
help us "see" the colour red. "taste" guacamole (Did I
tell you I am Mexican?), "smell" roses, "feel" a
baby's skin, "hear" Mozart... mystical reality is
there to be experienced, not to be explained."
I think if you accept these examples, as well as
Pirsig's metaphor about the menu and the food, as
mystical, then Pirsig has done an adequate job of
helping us understand the mystical in juxtaposition to
metaphysics.
Hugo:
"I would equate the MOQ with a ZEN philosophy for the
XX-XXI century western thinkers. It enables you to
talk about reality in metaphysical terms without the
risk of being mocked and turned down as "new ager" or
just "mystical", "unscientific", "illogical", etc."
Certain detractors of the MoQ, including myself, have
been saying these very things for a long time. For
example, see the title of the review of Lila's Child
by Struan Hellier at amazon.com, and the first few
sentences of the second paragraph.
Glenn
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