[MD] Plato's Good

[Andre Broersen]

Mark to Joe:

DQ is a concept, it is something that Pirsig made up.

At least that is how I see it, today.  But maybe Andre will present a different way of explaining this.

Andre:
It is because of this last sentence that I respond Mark. And, yes, I have a 'different way of explaining this'. DQ is NOT a concept. Pirsig is very clear about this:
'It's important to keep all 'concepts' out of Dynamic Quality. Concepts are always static. Once they get into Dynamic Quality they'll overrun it and try to present it as some kind of concept itself'.
(Anthony's PhD).

And this is what you are doing Mark. You are making a concept out of DQ and that ain't good. It leads to a static dead end...Plato's Good. It is only meant as a referring term. A finger poining... .

Just to suggest some more: Pirsig did NOT make DQ up. It is one thing in which he most certainly was NOT 'original'. The 'idea' of Quality has been with us since time immemorial...under very different names but nevertheless... . The oldest idea known to Mankind, Pirsig said somewhere. That is why the MOQ is part of the perennial philosophy.

The term 'Quality' is used because no Western scientist, anthropologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, politician, economist, philosopher, biologist, physicist...you name it... can get around that one or deny that it exists. This is the powerfull confrontation (and attempted solution) the MoQ places upon every existing Western theorizing about... well...the above mentioned disciplines and almost everything else.

Mark:
We can certainly imagine that there is stuff out there which we cannot know, but how would we know?  It is like seeing that thing that you will never see.

Andre:
You are saying this in relation to 'Quality' Mark. No doubt you are aware of the two different understandings the English word 'knowing' has in some other languages. The German one (which Pirsig uses as an example) is 'kenntnis' and the other is 'wissenschaft'. In Dutch the two different approaches and understandings are very similar to this German understanding and distinction.

Pirsig says quite a bit about this difference which is quite important in an 'understanding' ... a 'knowing' of Quality. To illustrate briefly: Pirsig explains the distinction or rather the difference between the two by pointing to the difference between knowing your mother's face (kenntnis) and knowing the history of Mesopotamia (wissenschaft). 'Knowledge' of Quality is kenntnis...you know it ahead of intellectual abstractions.

That is why every six-year old knows what quality is.

Cheers.