[MD] Humanism

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Mark]
I did not understand the use of the quote, as I stated in my questions to dmb. 

[Arlo]
Quotes provide a good way to cover the same ground without needing to reinvent
the wheel each and every time. In the case of citing an encyclopedia, it can
provide a common, shared frame of reference for the dialogue. 

I don't read all the posts to MD, but I do read many of DMB's, and I'd say
"quotes" make up a small percentage of his contributions, and they nearly
always are given with commentary, so I'm not sure I understand your complaint. 

[Mark]
I can quote passages out of the bible to support some theistic ideas, but I do
not think that would go over well in this forum. 

[Arlo]
But it would likely go over well in a forum about Christianity or theism. In a
forum about Pirsig, who himself talks about James and pragmatism, as well as
Zen and Buddhism, quoting such sources is appropriate.

[Mark]
I do not see any value in presenting a quote from the internet to further a
discussion.

[Arlo]
My guess is DMB saw a rhetorical trap and dismissed it by offering instead a
quote showing a broader context.

[Mark]
I am simply asking for some professionalism rather than the trash that is
presented as proof in answer to a sincere question.  If you, Arlo, don't have a
problem with that, then please explain why.

[Arlo]
Like Marsha, I think you're bending over backwards to come up with something...
anything... to attack DMB over. Personally, I don't know why he be bothers, he
could say "the weather is nice today"  and he'd be attacked for pretending to
be a weatherman, and heaven forbid he quote information from weather.com to
show how sunny it is where he lives.

[Mark]
And please do not bring blasphemy or sacrilege into this, such a thing is not
becoming.  Are we not to question and analyze what Pirsig states.  We are not
disciples are we? 

[Arlo]
Of course not, and this is a strawman. But we should have a common
understanding of what is being said from which we can build our criticism.
Otherwise criticisms sound like Rosanna Rosannadana, blasting Pirsig for
condemning "youth in Asia".

[Mark]
By the way did you have something to say about Humanism, or are you just here
to cause trouble?

[Arlo]
There is no hope for that dialogue to be anything but dysfunctional, since its
evident that there will not even be consensus as to what "Humanism" is, that
its being set up as just another bugbear in the boogeyman soup.

But if you want to discuss this, let's see if we can at least begin with an
understanding of what is meant by "Humanism". I've just read over the Wikipedia
entry, please do the same and let me know if you think this is an acceptable
"definition" of the term.