[MD] Hot Stoves and What To Do About Them

[Steven Peterson]

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 12:22 PM, John Carl <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> dmb says:
>>
>
>
>>  He's saying the mystics will get off the stove first because they tend to
>> be in closer contact with that pre-conceptual flux of life. For James and
>> Pirsig, that's reality and the concepts that follow are only good to the
>> extent that they successfully operate in that reality, in the flux of life.
>>
>> John says:
>
> I refuted this point earlier and didn't get nearly the interesting
> discussion that is being exhibited now, but my point was that Cooks who are
> aware of their surroundings and have vast experience with hot stoves are the
> ones who will pop off the most quickly.  Their experience guides their
> reactions.  Mystics are a bunch of air-heads who often are lost in their own
> dreams to the extent that they don't even know when they're sitting on a hot
> stove.

I tend to agree.


> And there's no such thing  as "pre-conceptual".

This is an important notion in the MOQ, but personally I don't like
Pirsig's primary/secondary reality stuff and putting thoughts on a
lower status from other sorts of experiences like hot stoves. It is
intended as anti-Platonism, but I think it gets too close to being
more of the same.