[MD] Platt's Proverbs On Beauty

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Matt]
I think Steve's suspicion is right.  I think Arlo's counter-evidence 
is also right, but I think this is a conflict within Pirsig.

[Arlo]
Well, again, I'd say this "conflict" only appears if you read 
"intellect" as inherently "S/O" (Bo's Baby). Pirsig has denied this, 
and I agree with Pirsig that "intellect" is no more "anti-beauty" 
than social patterns or biological patterns. ALL can be either artful 
or art-less, depending on their construction.

[Matt]
Platt's thesis has long been something like "beauty is reality,"...

[Arlo]
There is plenty of "reality" that is not beauty. Indeed, Platt's 
"thesis" here only makes sense if you see "man" as the sole 
"polluter" of beauty; i.e., everything is beautiful but man mucks it 
up with his intellect. Ask yourself, given this "thesis", can a 
hedgehog ever do anything "un-beautiful" or polluting of "beauty"? 
Prior to "intellect", was "man" in a perpetual state of "beauty"?

For what its worth, I'd say the "mystic" is neither beautiful or 
unbeautiful, but the response of the person TO the mystic can be 
either. In fact, if "good" is a noun to Pirsig, I'd go further and 
say "beauty" is an adverb. "Beauty" describes acts that harmonize 
with the Good.