[MD] The relativity of the MoQ

[David Thomas]

Hi Bo,

On 9/8/09 2:53 PM, "Bodvar Skutvik" <skutvik at online.no> wrote:
>> Ham
>> So when Pirsig equates Quality with Reality he is invoking SOM
>> (existential) reality.
> Bo 
> THIS I agree with. The blunder is that of a Super-Quality sitting above
> the DQ/SQ split. The true context is that Quality is the DQ that has
> spawned the static levels. There is no Quality outside the MOQ as little
> as there is Newtonian Gravity outside Newtonian Physics
> 
> Anyway this blunder resulted in the Quality/MOQ "meta-metaphysics"
> that overrides the MOQ and is a result from Pirsig's disastrous
> association with James whose view was Pre-conceptual/Conceptual.

Bo in a large part you are the reason that I have come out of retirement.

I had been making what I think is my third pass though the 900 page tome
"The Writings of William James-A Comprehensive Edition- Edited by John J
McDermott and feeling philosophical decided to check the discuss archive to
review progress. Low and behold I hear you bashing both Pirsig and James for
screwing up the MoQ. I just couldn't let it lie. Oh why? Oh why?

A caveat, James regularly uses two terms in his lectures about people like
myself. "Amateur" and "naif". I suspect most if not all MoQers (maybe even
Pirsig occasionally) fall into these categories.

First, you may have it backward. It not that Pirsig (rightly or wrongly)
accepts James, but whether James would accept Pirsig. Scarcely a chapter
goes by in the 900 pages where James does not caution against, or mount a
detailed attack on Monists and Monism. James in nothing if not a devout
pluralist.