[MD] Babylonian intellectuals

[Khoo Hock Aun]

Hi Dave,

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 2:49 AM, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> This is a misconception and it is just one of many examples. In the MOQ,
> the difference between abstractions and concrete reality is the difference
> between static intellectual patterns and direct everyday experience. It's
> the difference between sq and DQ. You are simply misconstruing the MOQ as
> SOM.
>
Khoo:
Yes, IT really boils down to this.

That many can read an author like Pirsig and come away with widely differing
understandings is to be expected.

I would have thought a more open dynamic mind would be completely receptive
to what Pirsig was trying to convey. A closed static mind, sees the MOQ only
in its own mould.  In Bo's case, I would venture fourth stage meta-stasis
had already set in years ago.

Pirsig should have added a caveat, that the MOQ is not for everyone to grasp
at first instance. For some it could takes, years, decades or even a
lifetime.

Dave added:


> I really, really hate what you're doing to this place, clogging it up with
> this hair-brained nonsense all the time. I listened to it for over a decade
> now and I'm just sick to death of it. Please, get a hobby. Go away. Let us
> do philosophy, will you? That would be "a promising development".
>
Khoo would like to say:

I, for one, really appreciate all your exertions, as do all else who labour
like you do to clarify our understanding of the MOQ and Quality as presented
by Pirsig.

It is not wasted, even if it might be on Bo.

It has helped instead to refresh our perspectives, place into context, again
and again by repeated defence against the assault on Pirsig's MOQ.

Lurkers and newbies alike, if I may say so, who disdain but endure the
endless, sometimes pointless argumentation over basic definitions, see much
value in defending Pirsig's formulation of the MOQ, given that it is THAT
which drew them here in the first place, not a pretender's version.

If and when, we, as a discussion group,  leave all this "adolesecent"
sparring behind, I hope we can explore the new vistas an expanded
rationality can explore.

We still have not bridged Western and Eastern philosophies yet, which is one
such great promise of the MOQ finding common ground I look forward to;
by understanding how Eastern civilisations have achieved their respective
intellectual levels as compared to the SOM-dominated Western worldview.

We will cross the bridge when we come to it. But we are not there yet.
Not when we still have to come to terms with tendencies no matter how overt
or latent, for Western hegemony over the rest of the world.

It does looks like a slog, but then again, who can ask for a better cast of
characters than on the this list to make philosophy an ongoing dynamic
battle, an everyday real-life clash of ideas sometimes couched in terms of
"biblical proportions" and implications. It gets the adrenaline pumping;
emotional drivers that help meld the static and the dynamic to yield
creative insight by the clash of the rhetorical swords.

You stay keen and sharp by your own vigilance for the real and good. This
state of mind does not come in the absence of opponents and detractors who
distract by imposing themselves on you.

Thats all they do and want to do.

Best regards
Khoo Hock Aun