[MD] Ch 14

[Steve Peterson]

Hi Platt, Arlo, Ham, all

Here is part of chapter 14 when Phaedrus decides he wants to study Lila to see how his Quality thesis applies to her. He is explaining his project to Lila:

"What holds a person together is his patterns of likes and dislikes," he
said.  "And what holds a society together is a pattern of likes and
dislikes.  And what holds the whole world together is patterns of likes and
dislikes.” 

This quote relates to my discussion with Ham and is consistent with the view that reality = Quality is like saying that everything is awareness—especially if you take it a step further as he would later in the book to say that the world is not merely held together by likes and dislikes. Physically the world is an inorganic pattern of value, a pattern of likes and dislikes, of preferences. Love literally makes the world go ‘round.

Pirsig continues to explain his project to Lila:
“’History is just abstracted from biography.  And so are all the
social sciences.  In the past anthropology has been centered around
collective objects and I'm interested in probing around to see if it can be
better said in terms of individual values.  I've just had feelings that
maybe the ultimate truth about the world isn't history or sociology but
biography,’ he said.”

This quote will strike Platt because Pirsig uses the word individual.  With his levels he is most interested in distinguishing human values, the values of the individual. But all four levels are the values of the individual, Platt, not just the fourth.

Ch 14 continued:
“She didn't know what he was talking about

"You're sort of another culture," he said.  "A culture of one.  A culture
is an evolved static pattern of quality capable of Dynamic change.  That's
what you are.  That's the best definition of you that's ever been invented.”

This quote relates to Arlo and Platt’s discussion of whether only a human can respond to dynamic Quality. He seems to be saying that a culture responds to DQ.

More ch 14:
"You may think everything you say and everything you think is just you but
actually the language you use and the values you have are the result of
thousands of years of cultural evolution. It's all in a kind of debris of
pieces that seem unrelated but are actually part of a huge fabric.”

Platt, I think he is talking to you here. Your individual cannot be separated from his culture. Pirsig says that even what he thinks is the result of culture rather than of just “an individual.”

Regards,
Steve


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