[MD] "100% confident"

[Ham Priday]

Ian --


> Interestingly you bring in the "anti-theistic" angle. Dennett
> concludes his "Breaking the Spell" with the idea that proving the
> existence or nature of God (the first cause in the black hole at the
> centre of things) on way or another is ultimately uninteresting for
> the same reason.

To better answer you, and to respond to a similar note sent to me off-line 
by Krimel, I started looking for what McWatt had said on this topic.  Since 
his doctoral thesis had been removed from the archives, I  went to Pirsig's 
website (which Ant maintains), and found these notes typed in red by the 
author on Copleston's essay:

"The MOQ not only holds that there can be morality without the creation of 
an independent self, it holds that nothing whatsoever is apart from this 
morality."

"The MOQ, like the Buddhists and the Determinists (odd bedfellows) says this 
"autonomous individual" is an illusion."

"The individual man is primarily a biological organism."

And, under "the Development of Idealism":

"The MOQ would add a fourth stage where the term 'God' is completely dropped 
as a relic of an evil social suppression of intellectual and Dynamic 
freedom.  The MOQ is not just atheistic in this regard.  It is 
anti-theistic."

The sudden realization that I could not agree with any of the above 
annotations by the hand of Pirsig was disheartening, to say the least.  It's 
no wonder that metaphysical theory is held in contempt by this group.

Now you say:
> I find this liberating rather than nihilistic. Free to turn away from
> obsession with the black hole at the core of a metaphysics, free to
> look out at value in the real world. (This is not a nihilistic denial
> of some reality existing at the centre - just the pragmatic conclusion
> that it's not the most important problem to address it.)

Ian, you can't "liberate" yourself from the facticity of life by dismissing 
its reality.  Whether "ultimately uninteresting" or not, you can't ignore 
the fact that existence is a mystery whose truth is inaccessible to human 
experience.  This is what gives philosophy the edge on empirical knowledge; 
it offers man a perspective that transcends causality and finitude, allowing 
him to see that value points toward a higher reality.  Science and 
technology are designed to address pragmatic conclusions of  "the real 
world."  Krimel just confessed to me his belief that "Philosophy is simply 
disappearing, and the sooner the better."  As you seem to think that 
pragmatic solutions are the most important problem to address, I assume you 
share his opinion.

I had intended to take up the importance of "definitions" with you, but, 
under the circumstances, it would be an exercise in futility.

Thanks for laying it on the line, and enjoy your liberation from 
metaphysics.

Regards,
Ham