[MD] Philosophy and Abstraction

[Matt Kundert]

Hey Dave,

DMB said:
There's nothing wrong with dissolving bad questions. What concerns 
me is your sincere and earnest attempt to avoid accidentally giving 
answers to old riddles. As I understand it, you're reading Pirsig's 
claims through the lens of Rorty's particular strain of anti-Platonism 
and anti-representationalism. By doing so the key terms are put into 
a different context, where they have a very different meaning.

Matt:
Well, so better put is not that my avoidance is what concerns you, 
but that I'm getting Pirsig wrong (which occurs in my plan of 
avoidance, as it were).  Because the goal of any useful 
recontextualization is that you understand the difference between the 
"before" and "after" picture and can chart the differences (and rate 
relevancy and the like).

I try and keep an eye on those differences, and I understand that you 
think I fail in producing a picture of Pirsig that Pirsig is either 
committed to keeping (in those cases where my work is intended as 
criticism) or would see himself in (in those cases where I repaint 
Pirsig's picure for my own constructive purposes).  But I don't think 
it's the case that I'm not paying attention as well as I can.

Matt