[MD] Intellectual activity

[ian glendinning]

Alice, Arlo, Platt n'all

Welcome Alice, glad you could make it.

[Platt said to Alice] Of course, one wonders if the claim that truth
is provisional is also provisional.

[and Arlo responded]
Joyous is the "fact" that at the core of all attempts to symbolically
code "reality" is paradox and recursion.

I say, it can be great fun arguing with Platt, who is skilled in using
rhetoric to ridicule those who disagree with him :-)

I agree 100% when Arlo says "reality is paradox and recursion"
And I add "real-life is therefore pragmatic"

Logic and "knowledge" tempered by the kind of wisdom you clearly have Alice.

Regards
Ian

On 5/12/06, Arlo J. Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu> wrote:
> [Platt to Alice]
> Opinions are sometimes expressed harshly by accusing the other guy of being an
> idiot...
>
> [Arlo]
> Or a Marxist.
>
> [Platt to Alice]
> If you haven't read Lila yet, by all means do so. It represents  Pirsig's latest
> thinking whereas his thoughts in Zen were tempered by  New Age fads at the time
> it was written.
>
> [Arlo]
> By all means, read Lila. However, much better to keep ZMM as your foundation,
> and see Lila as emergent from this central idea, rather than dismiss all of ZMM
> because it doesn't fit your political ideology.
>
> [Platt to Alice]
> Of course, one wonders if the claim that truth is provisional is also
> provisional.
>
> [Arlo]
> Joyous is the "fact" that at the core of all attempts to symbolically code
> "reality" is paradox and recursion.
>
> [Platt to Alice]
> it's true that water is H20 in the U.S., Siberia and Timbuktu.
>
> [Arlo]
> No, Alice, it's not. And here you'll need to go beyond the SOMist ideology Platt
> adheres to. "H20" is simply one possible intellectual pattern to describe
> inorganic patterns of value. In a recent post to Craig I included a long quote
> from Lila which Pirsig uses to explain why the "objective world" seems similar
> to different people.
>
> [Platt to Alice]
> The liberal view that objective truth doesn't exist leads inevitably to  an
> attitude of all-embracing tolerance.
>
> [Arlo]
> This is classic Straussian neoconism. "Objective truth" is a SOM position. Keep
> in mind that this is what Platt advocates, not the MOQ. Take a look at my
> recent post to Craig, with many full paragraphs from both ZMM and Lila that
> represent Pirsig's view on "objective truth". If you want to adhere to an
> SOMist view, by all means, that is your choice. But be clear, the MOQ is not
> SOM. Of course, if you don't simply dismiss ZMM for being ideological different
> from what your Party says, you'll know this.
>
> [Platt to Alice]
> So we see appeasement towards law breakers, both here in the U.S. and
> internationally. Can anarchy or totalitarianism be far behind?
>
> [Arlo]
> Or fascism?
>
> Arlo
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