[MD] Bo's right! For all the wrong reasons? (Part2)

[Krimel]

> [Ian]
> My view is pragmatic. Name a preferable metaphysics...
>
> [Krimel]
> Taoism.

> [Ian]
> Go on, Krim, I'm listening (and don't forget to consider 
> the downside / abuses / risks as well ...)

[Krimel]
Pirsig does a pretty good job with this in ZMM. I will never understand why
he messes it up so in Lila. Basically the idea is that we apprehend and name
the world through oppositions, white/black, big/small, ugly beautiful etc.
The Way or the path of virtue is understanding the world less through
opposition than through harmony. Opposites are not usually matters of
either/or but of balance and proper relationship. 

I think one of the problems with the MoQ is Pirsig's effort at metaphysical
stone cutting. He pictures this as revolving around finding the "right"
first cut. Personally, since his locates his first cut about were Taoist
have traditionally place emphasis I thought he had it nailed until arriving
here four or five years ago. Now I see it as a mistake to regard even the
static/dynamic split as essential to Taoism which metaphysically handles all
oppositions. The emphasis on static and dynamic is mainly a matter of a
particularly ubiquitous set of oppositions. Thing are changing or like to
change or stationary and unlike to move.

That sense of harmony which characterizes Lao Tsu's descriptions of The Way
seems at least to be inborn and them amplified by culture. We have a sense
of the world that is right for us. We sense harmonious relationships which
is what I take Pirsig to be saying. That sense of harmony is like our sense
of direction or our senses of time, space and probability.

The biggest problem with the MoQ account of this is the idea of "betterness"
which I would call "harmony". Betterness and harmony are not properties of
DQ or SQ they are properties of the relationship or proportion of SQ to DQ.
In is not a matter of DQ good, SQ bad. It is a matter of the balance of DQ
and SQ. Pirsig plays lip service to this but even a casual stroll through
the archives will reveal that it is Pirsig waxing rhapsodically about DQ
that really catches on. People here seem to think the DQ is "betterness" and
that it is more important than SQ. I think they are wrong on both counts.