[MD] Boromir's Journey

[Matt Kundert]

Hey Steve,

Steve said:
You compare Eastern Enlightenment in Buddhism or 
Hinduism with Western Enlightenment as 18th century 
european cultural phenomenon.I understand what you 
are saying about pragmatists not being able to see 
Enlightenment as an epistemological achievement. A good 
point. You then say that what is left then is only bliss. 
Perhaps both forms of Enlightenment could also be 
understood in negative terms as overcoming anxiety.

Matt:
Yeah, that's true.  However, that just punches up what 
they have in common with what we might traditionally 
call the "religion impulse," and why Nietzsche derided 
"metaphysical comfort" and Heidegger called Platonism 
"onto-theology."  Pirsig makes the same connection at 
the beginning of ZMM: "[Phaedrus'] kind of rationality 
has been used since antiquity to remove oneself from 
the tedium and depression of one's immediate 
surroundings." (Ch. 6, 72-3)  

The most interesting thing I learned this past year was 
that the primary motivation of Greek materialism was 
cessation of mental suffering--materialism was _never_ 
taken seriously _by the propounders_ as a "metaphysical" 
thesis qua metaphysical thesis, which is why it usually lost 
in the face of even more comforting philosophies like 
neo-Platonism.  It wasn't until technology arose that 
showed how there was a _different_ kind of payoff for this 
thesis, the improvement of man's estate (as Bacon put it), 
that materialism began to be taken seriously.  At least, so 
says Hans Blumenburg.

The overcoming of anxiety is a _huge_, neverending 
motivation for our behavior.  And I think a lot of 
philosophy, and other spiritual activities, can be usefully 
seen under that rubric.

What you might make the move to from there is that the 
European Englightenment philosophers' way of alleviating 
anxiety in long run _merely exacerbates_ the situation, 
rather than proving to be a good long-term strategy.

Have you run across Richard Bernstein's Beyond 
Objectivism and Relativism, yet?  That's the book where 
he coins "Cartesian Anxiety" (the use of which I have 
strown about my blog and essays, like "Confessions").

Matt

> Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:41:23 -0400
> From: peterson.steve at gmail.com
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Subject: Re: [MD] Boromir's Journey
> 
> Hi Matt,
> 
> I just read your post "What is Enlightenment?"
> 
> http://pirsigaffliction.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-is-enlightenment.html
> 
> You compare Eastern Enlightenment in Buddhism or Hinduism with Western
> Enlightenment as 18th century european cultural phenomenon.I
> understand what you are saying about pragmatists not being able to see
> Enlightenment as an epistemological achievement. A good point. You
> then say that what is left then is only bliss. Perhaps both forms of
> Enlightenment could also be understood in negative terms as overcoming
> anxiety.
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Best,
> Steve
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