[MD] Taking Words Seriously

[Steven Peterson]

Hi Matt,

Pirsig:
Whenever one talks about Dynamic Quality someone else can take
whatever is said and make a static pattern out of it and then
dialectically oppose that pattern. The best answer to the question,
“What is Dynamic Quality?” is the ancient Vedic one—“Not this, not
that.”

Steve:
Given this RMP statement (and all that talk about Quality being
undefined), dmb's objections are just the sort of objections we can
_always_ make to what _anyone_ says about DQ. The only way to avoid
such objections is to shut the hell up about DQ, but then of course
dmb objects to not talking about DQ as well. But it is just absurd
from the start for dmb to claim that he has properly grasped something
in the name of DQ that you and I have missed given that "DQ" is (among
other Pirsigian usages of the term) a placeholder for what is lost as
soon as you think you have grasped it.

Best,
Steve