[MD] Principled Person Level

[Gene M]

Platt:

> How does morality about "we" apply to the inorganic and biological
> levels? I doubt if the individual photon cares about his fellow photons
> or anything other than itself for that matter. Nor does an individual
> blade of grass exhibit any moral choice regarding his next door
> neighbor.


So you're saying photons have a self? An interesting tact for you to take,
but sure! I'll agree with that.

Platt:

> Yes, this is the most telling answer to the question. However, Pirsig
> laments the "dissipation of these values" (optimism, belief in the
> future, their codes of craftsmanship and labor and thrift and self-
> discipline), not only acknowledging the existence of a "self" but also
> suggesting the nation would do well to focus on recapturing such values
> if it is to reverse its current trend of slouching towards Gomorrah. I
> agree.


Nice job on this one platt! Not only did you make a statement and attribute
it to pirsig with no back-up, but then it conveniently ended up proving your
point! That was certainly a lucky turn of events.

How could I be so wrong! Without even a quote, you've proven pirsig believed
in a self!

Platt:

> Pirisg would agree, and he credits Victorians with just such
> creativity: "What we tend to forget is that, unlike the European
> aristocrats they aped, the American Victorians were a very creative
> people."
>
> Perhaps in referring to Victorians we should take a page from Pirsig
> and distinguish between Europeans and Americans. :-)


Why must you always pick half a point to argue? Oh right, because it's the
half that proves you right.

Pirsig did indeed credit victorian's with a lot of creativity, but he also
credited them with a complete failure of creativity of another sort. They
had no Social creativity, they just aped what they thought of the europeans.
Intellectually they were creative, socially and biologically they were
completely stuck, without an In for DQ. Which is why they're society failed,
but their ideas live on.

See that, see the ideas seperate from the individual. Seperate from the
society in fact.

-Gene