[MD] Reading & Incomprehension

[skutvik at online.no]

Krimel and John 
(I noticed you interest in this issue) 

9 June.

[Krimel] had said
> I think reality is "something." I am sure not sure what. Every time I
> think I have it nailed down it changes into something else. It always
> seems to run faster than I can. I find myself always talking about
> what I thought it was just a bit ago but then it is gone again. And so 
> I call it Tao. That's kind of what Lao Tsu says. I call it Tao because
> it is a strange word from a strange culture and that helps remind me
> that I don't actually know what it means. I think it is infinitely
> better than Quality because regardless of what Pirsig says I always
> think in the back of my mind somewhere that I do know what that word
> means.

OK, "it" or "reality" is ever-changing, dynamic, ... plus all expressions 
of "ineffability" known. Lao Tsu called it Tao and Pirsig called it Quality 
and my point is that it is the source of everything we know, NOT that 
there is a still fluxier FLUX that gives rise to the Fux/Everything 
dualism! I know you have great geneal knowledge, but can't we 
philosophize a little for ourselves? You will understand that it is the 
Quality/MOQ meta-metaphysics that irks me because it nullifies the 
MOQ.

[Krimel]
> He said he didn't know what to call it so he called it "The Way" and
> that you could recognize it through the common relationships that
> underlie all opposition. Rough and smooth, dark and light.

Yes, no light without dark  ..etc. It's easy to see that these are mutually 
dependent and one  is brought to despair over it, but SOM's S/O is a 
different story. In its adjective form it's also an aggregate, no 
subjective without objective, but it has achieved metaphysical status 
with OBJECTS in one universe and SUBJECTS in another with no 
connection whatsoever between them. And - for instance - subjective 
thoughts are not supposed to move objective bodies, yet they do, and 
physical stuff is not supposed to alter mental states, yet they do, this is 
SOM's monster-paradox. And the MOQ does resolve it, but then Pirsig 
goes and nullifies it all with his "Quality/MOQ" meta-metaphysics. 

I had hoped to involve you as some neutral umpire into this quandary 
so please concentrate on this single issue.   

Bodvar