[MD] Pirsig/James connection

[John Carl]

Greetings David,
I'm interested in your outlook on James in regard to a statement you make:

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 1:21 PM, David Thomas <combinedefforts at earthlink.net
> wrote:


> If you have been following my conversation with Bo you should be able to
> pick why I think James thought is a valuable foundation.
>
> I follow all the conversations on the MoQ.  I am indescriminate in that
regard.  But I don't quite follow you here.  Why do you think James thought
is a valuable foundation?

I myself am relatively new, having joined at the beginning of the summer
from an interest in Josiah Royce.  Have you heard of him?  900 pages on
James and nothing on Royce?  I wouldn't be surprised.  That's usually the
way it is with Royce.  As a life long friend and debater with William James,
he is one of his most thorough and penetrating critics of Radical
Empiricism.  I'd like to hear what you think is the value of Jamesian
Concrete for a foundation.

And how does this jibe with Bo?  Bo isn't a big fan of James either, but he
doesn't like my Roycean Idealism neither so we're all over the place here.

It is nice to pick up another David who can represent the Jamesian side of
the debate between empiricism and idealism.


Going forward, Metaphysics while foundational, is just a tiny branch on the
> tree of philosophy. Or roots if you prefer that metaphor.


I think so.  Roots, first things, basic foundation...  metaphysics.


Just as a quick side note, isn't it interesting that when we talk about
"radicals" and "fundamentalists" we're pretty much talking about two
completely different kinds of people.  And yet the meanings of those two
terms are exactly the same!


{John shakes his head in wonder}




> It does little
> work without other branches to do necessary tasks. Pirsig pointed to
> pragmatism as an existing branch that would be valuable in doing that. So
> I'm looking where he pointed. What I see doesn't seem be in conflict with
> the MoQ and may be very valuable for its future progress.
>
> But I could be and often am wrong.
>
> Dave
>
>
Well... I'm sorry to hear that Dave.  I personally am always right.  I make
a pointed effort to be so and I recommend it highly.

You don't believe I'm always right?  Just ask my wife, dude.  She's right
over there.

You wanna know how to be always right too?  It's easy.  Just go with the
best information you've got in the moment, and be open to something better
coming along.  If something better comes along, then change your mind.
 Viola.  You'll always be right.






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