[MD] Anti-intellectualism revisited

[david]

dmb said:
...What we're trying very hard to do is show you that this problem has already been solved by Pirsig and an increasing number of other philosophers.  How many times have I posted quotes from other philosophers who also reject SOM? Too many to count; dozens or maybe even hundreds!   ...Cogent explanations and textual evidence never seems to have any effect on the people in this gang....



Horse said:

...[John and Ian] are "the two that are having the hardest time getting their heads around the problem space/solution scenario that several people here have commented on, supplied evidence for and generally given a crystal clear explanation about! ...There is no problem here and as DMB has re-iterated over and over, stop confusing the problem with the cure! ...Until you get past this you ARE going to be stuck in the same place as when Bo left. No amount of evidence is going to shift you because you will just keep ignoring and/or denying it. There are none so blind.....etc."


John replied:
No, it's not SOM that's the 4th level. I mean, I don't even think the 4th should be called intellect! ...Can anyone just respond simply to my arguments/issues without resorting to ad hominem attacks? PS: By "respond" I mean without resorting to "because RMP said so". Since's it's Pirsig's terminology I'm taking to task here, something more is needed to defend it than the mere fact of what Pirsig said.


dmb says:
Unbelievable! 

John, you're not making any sense. How can we talk about the meaning of Pirsig's terms without Pirsig's explanations of those terms. And what makes you think you get to ignore well-supported and carefully explained criticisms. What makes you think that you get to impose conditions on your critics? And don't you realize how absurd it is to rule out the most relevant textual evidence there can be for the MOQ? Your attempt to characterize references to Pirsig's books as "resorting" to RMP says so is completely absurd because that's exactly what we're supposed to be talking about. Pirsig's statements are the thing you are distorting and confusing and misunderstanding.

Lots of people are trying to tell you the same thing, John. How does that fail to impress you? Not just Arlo and myself but also Ron, Ant, Horse are all in basic agreement about the nature of your mistakes. Why wouldn't want to take that seriously? Even if you just don't understand what we're all pointing at, don't you care to find out, at least?

Okay, maybe you don't care about getting ideas right. It's not for everybody. But how are you not embarrassed or even ashamed? Don't you care what this makes you look like? Can I appeal to your vanity, if not your sense of decency? This Bo's level of crazy, where you don't even care what the author of the MOQ thinks of the MOQ. 

I think it's very clear that you simply unwilling or unable to have an intelligent conversation and so you have no business being anywhere near philosophy.