[MD] Pirsig, James and Peirce

[Ron Kulp]

I have seen comparisons between James and Pirsig and Dewey and Pirsig,
v.s Rorty but of the american pragmatists Pierce , to me, seems to be
closest to Pirsigs aim.
"Peirce believed that any truth is provisional, and that the truth of
any proposition cannot be certain but only probable." a method for
ascertaing the
meaning of particular terms "pragmatism" the word he coined was the
"theory of meaning ". This I thought, sounded alot like Pirsigs
"philosphology"
James took the idea of "truth" to task with Pragmatism which gave it's
"true is whatever works" connotation which is the arguement with Rorty I
believe.
The question: is Pirsigs patterns of value closer to "true is whatever
works" or from what I gathered by Pirsigs Inquirey "value" or "quality"
is  more a "theory of meaning". From that standpoint you could make a
stronger arguement for Pirsig's pragmatism and avoid the platonic
inuendo.
-x