[MD] Transhumanism

[Matt Kundert]

> [Mary Replies] 
> I hear what you are saying, though I don't at the moment remember who the
> rhetoriticians were vs the dialecticians, or even necessarily where Plato
> came down on anything (it's late).  I don't have to 'always be right', but I
> have the right to speak up and if you think I am being overly assertive I
> refer you to almost any other post by any other person for examples of real
> acrimony.  There is a double standard. Sometimes I choose to pretend it is
> not there.

Mary--this is what I don't understand.  I never said you 
have to "always be right."  I was talking about the 
consequences of a philosophical thesis.  You and I differ on 
it, and I thought you were airing out, in a reasonable 
manner, a root of disagreement.  I thought you were 
right: this does appear to be a root disagreement, 
because--as I reconstruct--you want to make humility a 
philosophical assertion (about which may or may not be 
assented to) and I want to leave it a personal virtue.  You 
think that the philosophical assertion is important, I think 
because it leads to personal humility (something along the 
lines of "Pirsig and the Buddha held this thesis about 
humility, therefore their own personal humility was a 
consequence of it").  I think just the opposite happens.  I 
think once one turns it into a philosophical assertion, you 
pave the way for ignoring humility.

But when I opened up this area where it would seem we 
disagree, you thought I was saying _you_ have a 
personality fault, "always be right," or that I didn't think 
you had a right to speak up, or were being overly 
assertive.  Your post was refreshing absent of acrimony 
(despite the fact that expressions of "I hope for your sake 
you grow out of what you think some day" seem naturally 
condescending, but what else is really at stake when we 
engage in the act of persuasion).  I thought I mentioned 
that.  But I do absolutely think that in the long run, 
adherence to your view has more potential to create 
acrimonious people than my view, as counterintuitive as 
that may seem.  And it's for the reason Pirsig laid out at 
the end of ZMM, when you make the Good subservient to 
the True, which is what I think happens when you 
makeover humility into a philosophical thesis.

Matt
 		 	   		  
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