Donald T Palmgren (lonewolf@utkux.utcc.utk.edu)
Sat, 14 Feb 1998 04:53:42 +0100
What counts as understanding in philosophy?
Diana suggested (and resonably so, for this is what most achademic
philosophers do) that you understand X (MoQ, for instance) if you can see
his or its position in relation to what goes before in the history of
philosophy and maybe see the impact X had on what followed. That's not
the only (or best) approch but it is a start. (For a lot of Philosophy
professors this is the only move they can make -- which makes them really
liturary scholers not necessarily philosophers.)
I'll try and help you see why the achademics don't much care for
Pirsig, but keep in mind that I'm not really an academic philosopher
myself -- I've been around the University block enough to see that scean
is in pretty sorry shape. (Keep grooving on that question, "What is
Philosophy? What's the pay-off here?") Really their issue w/ Pirsig has to
do w/ the whole direction philosophy has taken since the death of Hegel in
1831. I'll come to that, but...
First I want to get a grip on what SOM is by looking at Decartes
vs. Kant. Then (although -- or in light of, the fact that TLS isn't
composed of trained achademic philosophers (thank God!)) I'd like to
try and lay a little Kant on you.
DeCartes came up w/ this idea of Mind and Body. Under Body he put
anything that is spacially extended (My chair, my PC...); under mind he
placed anything that is not spacialy extended (thoughts, ideas,the laws of
physics, etc.). DeCartes said everything is either one or the other. A
less than bold statment, really: "Everything is either embodied or not."
Well obviously! It becomes a metaphysics only when you go on to say that
both of those "really exist." Does everyone see that?
So is this SOM? Well if you want to call it that o-kay, but wait
a second...
"Subject" means "knowing subject," and "object" means "known
object." This termonology really comes in to play w/ the Germans, and the
German etamology is much clearer. The German Gegenstand (object) makes
clear that an object is "was steht entgegen," "what stands over against" a
knowing subject (sometimes our language does the thinking for us). So in
(what should I call it?) gramatically correct subject-object talk (?) an
idea is an object (although admitedly an object of a odd type). A thought
-- a mentel picture, is something that stands over against the knower --
"held before the mind's eye" so to speak. Now, again, just having
subject-object talk dosn't make a metaphysics. What makes a SOM is saying,
"Both S and O exist and everything is one or the other."
Now which does Pirsig talk about? It seems to me (I'll leave to
you to conferm or deny) that he's thinking about something more a kin to
Cartisan Mind-Body dualism -- as is more the style of thought in the
Anglo-Amarican world. (Call it MBd if you want.)
Now let me say on a personal note, so you know where I'm coming
from: I really distrust these broad catagories. As a rule they carry
little explanitory force. Generally what hapenes is people pick some word
ending in -ism and turn it into some sort of battle cry. If one feels the
need to bow down, well there are worse churches to do it in than the
church of Robert M Pirsig, but, personally, I find this partisanship
unphilosophical and frankly undignified. Lets not worry just now about
who's right or wrong, or who wins the game (One first wants to ask, "what
game are playing?" (a re-stating of "what's philosophy?")) and insted just
look at what Mr Pirsig tried to do, how, and why? As Wittgenstein said (or
if he didn't he should have), "It's more important to be clear than correct."
O-kay, I'll give TLS a couple of days to respond w/ questions and
comments about DeCartes, MBd, and this clearer (I hope) rendering of what
"subject" and "object" mean... Personally I don't want to spend a lot of
time on DeCartes (I think this is rather straight forward stuff), and go
on into Kant, whom I see as very much a kin to Pirsig.
TTFN (Ta-ta for now),
Donny
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