[MD] freewill

[david buchanan]

dmb said:
.., Marsha is reading the rejection of the Cartesian conception of self as a rejection of ANY conception of the self.


Marsha replied:
I did not even use the word rejection.  Both self and static patterns of value are illusions, but they are useful.  ...And in the quote it was RMP that used the word fiction, as does Anthony in the Textbook by using the term 'useful fictions.' 



dmb says:
Nobody said that you used the word rejection. I'm saying that the quote you used is the rejection of the Cartesian self and that is what you're misreading. You used the quote as evidence of your assertion that you, me and Robert Pirsig are fictional. 

MarshaV wrote:
Me, you and Pirsig are a fiction.
"This self-appointed little editor of reality is just an impossible fiction that collapses the moment one examines it. This Cartesian 'Me' is a software reality, not a hardware reality. This body on the left and this body on the right are running variations of the same program, the same 'Me,' which doesn't belong to either of them. The 'Me's' are simply a program format." (LILA)

dmb continues:
Is Robert Pirsig a homunculus that somehow lives behind the author's eyeballs and serves as a self-appointed editor of reality? If he were, then Robert Pirsig would be a ridiculous fiction and you'd be right. I'm willing to entertain the possibility that you are a ridiculous fiction but Robert Pirsig is a well documented fact and I've seen him with my own eyes too.