[MD] Dynamic Development at all costs?

[Krimel]

> > [Krimel]
> > You could try the paragraph above. I know there are a few big words 
> > there.Try sounding them out. Notice the part about "Then one doesn't 
> > seek the absolute Truth." And the part about "One can then examine 
> > realities the same way one examines paintings in an art gallery, not 
> > with intellectual an effort to find out which one is the 'real' 
> > painting, but simply to enjoy and keep those that are of value."
> 
> [Platt]
> Those excerpts say nothing about truth cannot be known. You see things 
> that aren't there. I think they call that hallucinating. 
> 
> [Krimel]
> I am neither an expert on nor an advocate for postmodernity but as I
> understand it, the crux of the matter is that it challenges the idea that
> Truth or and absolute reality can be known. That is exactly what Pirsig 
> says here, "Then one doesn't seek the absolute Truth." It would seem to be

> front and center with his conception of Quality as fundamentally 
> indefinable. It is not that "truth" can not be known it is that "Truth"
> can not be known.
> 
> > [Krimel]
> > This is a really like postmodern argument here coming from an English
> > teacher... Is this starting to come together for you now? That last bit 
> > is the part that means that if HipHop floats your boat it's as good as
> > Shakespeare. Especially, if you don't really care much for Shakespeare.
> 
> [Platt]
> Try this to bring you back from Disneyland to reality. "The tests of truth

> are logical consistency, agreement with experience, and economy of 
> explanation." (Lila, 8) If you don't get it at first, write it out 100 
> times. Oh, I forgot. Writing is difficult for you. 
> 
> [Krimel]
> He also makes it clear that there is not just one way to pass these tests.
> Sometimes we grade on a curve and often we judge on purely aesthetic
> criteria as in, "One can then examine intellectual realities the same way
> one examines paintings in an art gallery, not with  an effort to find out
> which one is the 'real' painting, but simply to enjoy and keep those that
> are of value."
> 
> Does it hurt you to find that Pirsig might actually be an evil
> postmodernist?

[Platt]
What hurts is your apparent belief that a postmodernist statement like "It's

true there is no Truth" is a high quality intellectual pattern. It's self-
contradictory and thus profoundly incoherent. But, logic is apparently 
something you can take or leave at your convenience.   

[Krimel]
I wouldn't know. As I stated, "I am neither an expert on nor an advocate for
postmodernity." So you would need to take that up with Pirsig. But I should
point out that saying "It's true there is no Truth" is completely different
than saying, "There may be Truth but we would have no way of knowing it if
it bit us on the ass."

Pirsig's position would seem to be the later.