[MD] MOQ Recursion

[John Carl]

Well said Platt.  One of my favorite passages.  I saw a bumper sticker
yesterday at the river, which I liked a lot and have been telling to my wife
lately because it tickles me most pithily:

More wag, less bark.

John Pulling Leg

On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 8:52 AM, <plattholden at gmail.com> wrote:

> All:
>
> Whether the MOQ is an intellectual pattern or a metaphysics or something
> else
> seems to me to be besides the point. I simply call it a world view and
> believe
> the better discussion is whether or not the MOQ is superior to other world
> views. IMO the following passage from Lila near the end of the book
> illustrates
> the meaning of the MOQ far better than any intellectual definition,
> description
> or analysis:
>
> "He remembered it had been spring then, which is a wonderful time in
> Montana,
> and the breeze blowing down from the pine trees carried a fresh smell of
> melting snow and thawing earth, and they were all walking down the road,
> four
> abreast, when one of those raggedy nondescript dogs that call Indian
> reservations home came onto the road and walked pleasantly in front of
> them.
> They followed the dog silently for a while. Then LaVerne asked John, "What
> kind
> of dog is that?"
>
> "John thought about it and said, "That's a good dog."
>
> A bit later, Pirsig explains the significance of John's answer:
>
> "LaVerne had been asking the question within an Aristotelian framework. She
> wanted to know what genetic, substantive pigeonhole of canine
> classification
> this object walking before them could be placed in. But John Wooden Leg
> never
> understood the question. That's what made it so funny. He wasn't joking
> when he
> said, "That's a good dog." He probably thought she was worried the dog
> might
> bite her.The whole idea of a dog as a member of a hierarchical structure of
> intellectual categories known generically as "objects" was outside his
> traditional cultural viewpoint.
>
> "What was significant, Phaedrus realized, was that John had distinguished
> the
> dog according to its Quality, rather than according to its substance. That
> indicated he considered Quality more important." (Lila, 32)
>
> The "Aristotelian framework" is what I consider the intellectual level to
> be,
> dominated by S/O patterns. By contrast, John Wooden Leg experiences
> within a moral framework dominated by value patterns. Of the two paintings
> in
> the gallery of "truth," I find John's of higher quality.
>
> Those whose livelihood depends on definition, description and analysis will
> no
> doubt prefer other paintings. Yet even they must admit that their choices
> are
> guided by values.
>
> Speaking of dogs, there's another phrase expressing the negative side of a
> value framework, namely "That dog won't hunt." For me the words "That's a
> good
> dog" and "That dog won't hunt" pretty well sums up reality as experienced
> through the framework of the MOQ.
>
> But, I could be wrong.
>
> Regards,
> Platt
>
>
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