[MD] Protagoras and "Measure"

[Ham Priday]

Greetings, John -- 


> Questions Ham,
>
>> What is sorely lacking in classical philosophy is the concept
>> of a sensible agent that exists independently of the essential
>> source, yet is intrinsically aware of its value.
>
> What does "independent existence"  look like and how do you
> know it is real?

You're looking at it.  You assume it's "real" because it's the only reality 
you experience.

While we both experience an objective world with a common history and 
properties, it's self-evident that my awareness is not the same as yours. 
It should also be self-evident that the experienced world of beingness is 
not the self that knows it.  Rather, the objective world appears to exist 
apart from the Knower as a self-sustained system of its own, whether we 
exist or not.  That makes our existence as "knowers" independent of the 
world's existence as "being".  You will say this is just SOM speak, and 
that's true.  Existence--the universe we inhabit--is divided into subjective 
"selves" and objective "otherness".  It takes such a duality (dichotomous 
contingency) to make the world exist.  And although we depend on this 
natural world for our existence, our awareness of it is independent of its 
being.

> Incidentally, I discovered a philosophical explication of Essence
> in my re-reading of one of my favorite books, the other day,
> The River Why.  Have you read it?
>
> I noticed the front cover of the book proclaims, "In the company
> of Catch-22 and Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
> Which must have been why I first picked the book up years ago.
>
> Although truthfully, I'm a bit puzzled over the equating of ZAMM
> and Catch-22.

No, I can't say I've read it.  I assume the fisherman who wrote it grew up 
in the flower-child generation who were attracted to books like ZAMM.  But I 
see they're making it into a movie, and I think I'll wait to see that before 
purchasing any more Pirsig-related books.

Thanks for the reference, though, John.

Happy year 2010,
Ham