[MD] The Art of Philosophy

[X Acto]

"Knowing, by its very nature, concerns what is inherently best, and knowing
in its truest sense concerns what is best in its truest sense."
-Metaphysics Lambda[169c] [2]
 
The love of wisdom is a passion for what is best.
 
I dont think the passions were rejected so much as directed. Remember the metaphor of 
the chariot driver allowing the passions to drive and reason to guide.
 
The passions were rejected when the forms became the ideal and the True
 when the material was illusion and false.
Again the Platonic shadow is cast over the discussion, and it's Plato who would divorce us
from the passions not Aristotle or Socrates. James seems to be under the impression that 
ideas are some how unrelated to the good, but in fact ideas exist by virtue of their goodness
and Pirsig seems to over generalize the importance the ancient Greeks placed on avoiding
the kinds prejudices the passions those ego-centric drives are associated with. The only 
comparison is that they both miss the mark in regard to the pragmatic benefits of  reason
over the unbridled passions and that the best passion is the passion for what is best in life
which is what Socrates and Aristotle advocated and Plato rejected.
 
..


________________________________
From: david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>
To: "moq_discuss at moqtalk.org" <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org> 
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 12:59 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] The Art of Philosophy


Compare and discuss....

"If we were radically feelingless, and if ideas were only the things our minds could entertain, we should lose all our likes and dislikes at a stroke, and be unable to point to any one situation or experience in life more valuable or significant than any other." -- William James, On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings.


“It’s been necessary since before the time of Socrates to reject the passions, the emotions, in order to free the rational mind for an understanding of nature’s order which was as yet unknown. Now it’s time to further an understanding of nature’s order by reassimilating those passions which were originally fled from. The passions, the emotions, the affective domain of man’s consciousness, are a part of nature’s order too. The central part.” — Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art

        
                        
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