[MD] Correctness and Usefulness

[Platt Holden]

[Krimel]
> I think the MoQ addresses this problem by refusing to define an Absolute
> Truth. 

Except in the case of the hot stove: "Whether the stove is the cause of the 
low quality or whether possibly something else is the cause is not yet 
absolutely certain. But that the quality is low is absolutely certain." 
(Lila, 5)

And the case of the germ vs. the doctor: "But what's not so obvious is 
that, given a value-centered Metaphysics of Quality, it is absolutely, 
scientifically moral for a doctor to prefer the patient. This is not just 
an arbitrary social convention that should apply to some doctors but not to 
all doctors, or to some cultures but not all cultures. It's true for all 
people at all times, now and forever, a moral pattern of reality as real as 
H20." (Lila, 13)

But Pirsig also said: "But if Quality or excellence is seen as the ultimate 
reality then it becomes possible for more than one set of truths to exist. 
Then one doesn't seek the absolute "Truth." One seeks instead the highest 
quality intellectual explanation of things with the knowledge that if the 
past is any guide to the future this explanation must be taken 
provisionally; as useful until something better comes along." (Lila, 8)

The Truth is that Pirsig sometimes contradicts himself, including denying  
Truth while invoking it, as when asserting " . . . this explanation must be 
taken provisionally, as useful until something better comes along." 

Platt