[MD] Good and Truth in Platonic system

[X Acto]

Since there seems to be an interested party, I'll lay out what I have
gained from reading Plato and Aristotle.

There is a difference between Plato's theory of forms and 
Parmenides doctrine of ideas. I gather from Aristotle that
Plato fell in with the Pythagoreans and developed his own
theory which is the one Pirsig takes issue with. This lends
alittle more clarity to RMP's arguements. we can discuss
what those differences are if that is where your intrests 
lie.

Or

We can discuss what Aristotle meant by "truth and the 
appearence of the truth", which boils down to 
"you can't judge a book by its cover" which takes
into account the relativism of perception. The resolve
being that basing judgements on what "is" is a logic
trap and what we should be looking at is what
holds the most meaning.

And

It was concluded that since intelligibility(understanding)
was possible in a perceptable world of flux that the 
nature of the good must posses an order, it must have
attributes and the very idea of understanding became
the most closely related attribute of the good because
it seemed a natural emergence and extension of it and to
exercise it was pleasurable.

Truth is a highly valued pleasure. which is an interesting
take on it. That is a thread all it's own too.

Glad someone else is interested in the roots of Philosophy
because it makes a huge difference in how one understands
Robert Pirsigs work, Pragmatism and the central reasons
of why we hold certain beliefs and which of those is the best 
to hold more tightly than others.

-Ron

.