[MD] freewill

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Dan]
Yes. It speaks to me. I am attracted to the MOQ by more than the 
words written in a book.

[Arlo]
What else has it said to you, other than the words written in the 
books? Can you give me an example of something "The MOQ says", but 
Pirsig did not?

[Dan]
It explains reality better than other metaphysics that I am aware of.

[Arlo]
"The MOQ" did this, and not Pirsig? Pirsig does not explain reality 
better than any other metaphysics, but his ideas do?

[Dan]
Maybe you're not listening, my friend.

[Arlo]
I'm listening. I hear Pirsig's voice clearly. And yours. And mine. 
Can you tell me, then, something "The MOQ" has said that Pirsig, or 
you or me, did not?

[Dan]
In other words, it is a collection of intellectual patterns of 
quality. It is not Robert Pirsig himself.

[Arlo]
?? When did I say "The MOQ" was "Robert Pirsig himself"??

[Dan]
He is certainly as free to interpret the MOQ as anyone.

[Arlo]
Pirsig is as free to interpret the MOQ as anyone? I am sure Bo will 
be happy to hear you say this. I'm trying to get a handle on what 
you're saying, Dan. One day you seem to want to restrict "The MOQ" to 
just the ideas expressed by Pirsig, the next day Pirsig is simply 
another "interpreter" of "The MOQ".

[Dan]
How is he not "just another interpretor"? He has put the MOQ "out 
there" as a collection of intellectual quality patterns for all the see.

[Arlo]
This is just confusing language. Its like saying "Pirsig is just 
another interpreter of Pirsig's ideas".

And this is right back into the very problem I had been talking 
about. Now you are conflating "The MOQ" as being somehow both 
"Pirsig's ideas" and the school of ideas derived from or evolving 
from his ideas.

Take the term "the MOQ" out, and you'll see this confusion disappears.

Pirsig has spoken his ideas. Others hear those ideas and through 
agreement or disagreement build upon those ideas, transform them, 
etc. Of course he put his ideas "out there", and of course others 
will build upon them. That's the way it has always worked, it is not 
a unique mechanic here.

[Dan]
So what difference does it make if we say "Robert Pirsig says" or 
"the MOQ says"? Isn't just a personal preference, really?

[Arlo]
I think as a rhetorical device, its a nice poetic to keep his 
narrative flowing. Its when that is forgotten, and the assumption 
becomes "The MOQ" is doing the speaking,and Pirsig is just trying to 
interpret what it is saying, that some big problems creep in.

Now, even with poetics, I'd say a more apt metaphor would be to say 
"Quality says...", and that "The MOQ" is Pirsig's "interpretation" of that.