[MD] Some historical perspective

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Squonk,

I like your slogan "Truth is a rhetorical device." Did you coin it? I
couldn't find it in a Google search. Do you mean that "Truth" or
"truth" is a rhetorical device?

Also, do you have a reference for Neitzche's take on the Sophists and
his take becoming the academic norm?

I previously asked about truth being divorced from Quality. It seems
to me that Pirsig's thesis in ZAMM was that this happened when Plato
subordinated the Good to the True. If so, then according to Pirsig,
the birth of the 4th level, which he says happened with the Greeks,
corresponds with the subordination of the Good to the True. This move
also seems to mark the beginning of subject-object metaphysics. For
Bo, if SOM and the fourth level were born at the same time, then they
may be the same thing. I don't think that is the case. I think
intellect (the fourth type of pattern of value) was actually born a
bit earlier with rhetoric relating to small-t truth while Truth (as an
essence) was created later, as you say, as a rhetorical device. It is
this essence called Truth rather than small-t truth that marks the
birth of SOM.

In other words, intellect predates Plato though SOM began with Plato
if not Socrates.

What do you think?

Best,
Steve