[MD] Intellectual activity

[ian glendinning]

Platt, as if to prove my point,

You supply great rhetoric, but no argument for "Pragmatists support
totalitarianism". Let's smear our adversary rather than argue as
usual.

So, Pirsig's MoQ is a load of bull is it ? As you well know, I
actually said "Pirsig's MoQ is the best model of reality I've ever
come across."

Pragmatic, because it inherently accepts that everything evolves.
High quality pragmatism, because its basis is that that nothing in
this seemingly objective, subjectively symbolic, world is absolute.

Your logic fails you when you take the ideas that quality is pragmatic
and communists / nazis claim to be pragmatic and manage to conclude
that
pragmatism is therefore communist / nazi totalitarianism.

Nice to be back anyway Platt, back in Alabam that is ;-)
Regards
Ian

On 5/13/06, Platt Holden <pholden at davtv.com> wrote:
> Ian:
>
> Good to hear from you after a long absence.
>
> > [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 :-)
>
> Thanks. I'm glad you judge my writing to be effective. :-)
>
> > I agree 100% when Arlo says "reality is paradox and recursion"
> > And I add "real-life is therefore pragmatic"
>
> If reality is paradox and recursion, what is metaphysics about? I
> gather if what you say is true, Pirsig's MOQ is just another load of
> symbolic bull because it's neither paradoxical nor recursive but, given
> its premises, downright logical.
>
> As for life being pragmatic, I wonder what you have to say about
> Pirsig's view of pragmatism:
>
>  "The Holocaust produced a satisfaction among Nazis. That was quality
> for them. They considered it to be practical." (Lila, 29)
>
> Hmmm --"real-life is therefore pragmatic?" The Holocaust was real, so
> maybe you're right. Likewise, Communists considered their gulags to be
> practical.
>
> So in the end, is pragmatism all there is?
>
> Platt
>
>
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