[MD] Rorty and Pirsig

[2000man]

Hello, good MOQ People and Pirsig Disciples,

Glad to see that you’re still here.  I posted a few
times on your board a number of years ago, after a
thoughtful re-read of ZMM turned me on to Pirsig, and
before Lila turned me off.  I since moved on to other
interests, but I recently heard a short lecture on
Richard Rorty, a “Rorty 101” summary, and it reminded
me of you.  I seem to recall that a lot of you MOQ
folk were also big fans of Rorty.  So I thought I’d
stop back in for a quick visit, so as to inquire about
that.  

What would attract a Pirsig disciple to Richard Rorty?
Pirsig seems to me to be extremely metaphysical and
logocentric, with his capital-Q Quality and his
statics and dynamics.  Rorty seems to be saying, let’s
get back to pragmatics.  Let’s revisit James and Dewey
and the “common man”.  Let’s put philosophy second,
behind the goodness that can evolve from healthy human
interaction.   Let’s use theory in an instrumental
fashion, hanging together various notions if and when
they help real people.  

Rorty seems to reject the search for a final theory of
truth, whereas Pirsig seems to say that Truth is
Quality and Quality is Truth.  Rorty allows free play
between disciplines and fields; Pirsig did something
like that in ZMM, but then crystalized and fossilized
his thinking in Lila.  Rorty celebrates the “strong
poet” Utopian reformer, which Pirsig came on as in
ZMM, but then retreated from it in Lila.  Perhaps
there is some common ground in Rorty’s calling for the
telling of stories as a source of moral education; and
also the common call of Pirsig and Rorty to think and
act beyond “tribal” loyalties by expanding the
boundaries of the tribe.  But I still don’t see a
strong common thread (other than that they’re both
really smart people who think on high levels).  

So what can you good philosophers tell this
grasshopper about the Pirsig / Rorty connection?  And
just as a footnote, has Rorty ever acknowledged or
discussed Pirsig and/or his theories?

Thanks much.

Jim G. from New Jersey


 
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