[MD] MOQ & Continental Philosophy

[Matt Kundert]

Hey David,

I meant _with_ Pirsig.  I first did a systematic exploration of Pirsig in a 
comtemporary philosophy class some years ago and the professor suggested 
that I do a comparison with some other established thinker or something.  
Surveying the material we had studied that semester, Husserl's notion of the 
lifeworld jumped out at me.  The fruits were 
"Phenomenological-Existentialism and the Metaphysics of Quality" which is in 
the Essay Forum (though it isn't an all together very good paper).

The notion of the lifeworld still strikes me as useful.  What doesn't are 
Husserl's notions of method that sometimes still pervade people who identify 
as phenomenologists.  For instance, your snippet from Critchley read 
"Phenomenology shows that the scientific conception of the world, in Carnap 
and Neurath, say, is parasitic upon a prior practical view of the world as 
pre-reflectively there in a handy, matter-of-fact, sort of way."  I think 
leveling down science's pretensions is great, but I'm suspicious of 
prioritizing.  I take all conceptions or views to be no more prior than any 
other, if for no other reason than having a view or conception means 
learning a language.  Critchley is probably pointing to something different 
than that with his "practical view of the world," but I still don't know 
what to do with "priority".

Matt

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