[MD] Hero or Villain?

[Ant McWatt]

Joseph Maurer stated April 9th 2012:

On 4/9/12 6:48 AM, "Ant McWatt" <antmcwatt at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

 
> The anti-intellectualism in Pirsig has been wildly exaggerated. As far as
> static quality goes, intellect is as good as it gets. Excellence in thought
> and speech has always been his art, right?
> Thanks gents - a good discussion on an important topic. 

Hi Ant and All,

 Through the ages heroes have been made not born, or is it born not made?  I
question your statement that "intellect is as good as it gets."  IMHO a hero
like Christ, Plato, Aristotle etc., were operating beyond commonly
understood intellectual capabilities.


Ant McWatt comments:

Joe,

As ever, good to hear from you.  However, the quote you highlighted here was actually written by Dave Buchanan; not me!  :-)

No doubt Dave can respond to this himself but he does qualify the statement "intellect is as good as it gets" by also (immediately beforehand) saying this is "as far as STATIC QUALITY goes".

Now, in addition to the static quality patterns, the MOQ also recognises an undefinable aspect of reality.  Out of the three heroes you mention, I'd say  Plato goes along with the statement "intellect is as good as it gets" but, and this is critical, doesn't qualify it.  He's the guy who made the Good a static form and didn't like poets i.e. the people engaged in pointing towards aspects of reality (such as Love) that are essentially beyond definition. And this is one of the reasons Pirsig improves on Plato; he recognises that the intellect has its limitations and the best we can intellectually do with some aspects of reality (such as the Good or Love) is to point to them.  

In fact, with many of Plato's Dialogues, I feel he's trying to "do a number" on me.   He rarely comes out straight out about where he's going with a discussion and I get this feeling he's trying to sell me something that I don't really want:  "Oh no, where is the double glazing salesman of philosophy dragging me to now" I say to myself.  "What's that, Plato, my old Tudor house would be less draughty and far quieter with white plastic triple glazing?".  You're right as far as it goes if you don't think beauty, heritage and charm aren't that important because they can't be defined. 

"What's that?  You did think beauty was important."  "Well, you shouldn't have tried to define it because your intellectual descendants (starting with Aristotle) thought they could improve on your definitions and the importance of these things eventually became lost."  "Don't believe me?  Take a look at what Athens looks like today and compare its beauty to the Athens you knew.  As such, I'm sticking to this Pirsig fellow.  He said to me I could avoid destroying the beauty and charm of my Tudor house by using secondary glazing yet still make it a warmer and quieter place.  He's going on about integrating the Arts and technology or something which all sounds worthy but all I know is that's he's doing a better job...."  

In other words Joe, maybe Plato wasn't such a hero after all?

Best wishes,

Anthony


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Joseph Maurer stated April 9th 2012:


Hi Ant and All,
 
Through the ages heroes have been made not born, or is it born not made?  I
question your statement that "intellect is as good as it gets."  IMHO a hero
like Christ, Plato, Aristotle etc., were operating beyond commonly
understood intellectual capabilities
 
 
On 4/9/12 6:48 AM, "Ant McWatt" <antmcwatt at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
 
> The anti-intellectualism in Pirsig has been wildly exaggerated. As far as
> static quality goes, intellect is as good as it gets. Excellence in thought
> and speech has always been his art, right?
> Thanks gents - a good discussion on an important topic.



.