[MD] The Tao of Quality - Verse 1

[Krimel]

[Ron sez]
I have to disagree with that and here is why:
Although reason is indeed an artifact and comes posterior in experience
it is also helpful to see it as an evolutionary extension in the navigation
of our lives. reason improves our lives, it makes them better. Therefore it
most certainly improves the tao.
Rendering the unintelligible intelligible was considered the operation of
the divine by the ancient Greeks and infered (to them) a hint at the nature
of the dynamic.
The arguement was not about if something "is" or "is not" but rather what
held the most meaning in experience.

The question to ask, when we inquire into whether or not reason does
anything for Quality is this: What does it mean to live a "good" life?

In the end I think this becomes the point and conclusion of Pirsigs aim, he
improves Quality by expanding and clarifying reason. Or why else get
involved.
 
[Krimel sez back]
Sup, Dude? It's been a while.
I had hoped to be more clear in pointing out that the function of reason is
to provide checks and balances on our fundamentally irrational nature. As
you point out the Greek were early adopters are reason as technique. They
are inventors of the distinction between the rational and irrational.
Rational has its roots in mathematical ratio which is to say it is digital
and algorithmic. They abhorred the irrational, that is, numbers that cannot
be expressed in terms of ratio.
But it is important to note that reason as a form of thinking is not
strictly speaking a function of speaking. Rather it is the result of
writing. To speak is to sing. And this singing retains essential analog
features that are smoothed out and lost in writing. While not the first
digital people, the Greek elevated and expanded the digitization of mankind.

However and whoever asks the question of the "good life" reason can never
produce anything more than a description. While reason might point us at the
moon, it has no capacity to say, "Oh, yeah, Aha! That's it." Only the
irrational can give us that assurance.