[MF] MOQ: valuable or not?

[Marty Jorgensen]

Hi Matt - thanks for the response.

Matt said:

I think it would be bad policy for a Pirsigian to say that "if 
you want to make a claim, philosophically speaking, your terms need to be
well defined" when you consider the fact that Pirsig spins his whole
philosophy out of a central term that he considers centrally important to
leave undefined.  So my suggestion is basically just that if you want to
debate with those who use the locution "God is Love," you might want to use
a different tactic (unless you don't find much force in Pirsig's
philosophy)..... And as for the linguistic issue, I don't think there's much
difference between saying "God is Love" and "Quality is undefined."  

Marty replies:

Well, first of all I don't consider myself a 'Pirsigian'; I have really
enjoyed his writing and his stories, but I'm not yet fully on board.  That
said, though, I think there is a significant difference between "God is
Love" and "Quality is undefined".  Pirsig has put a lot of effort into
explaining how quality works in the world and how to recognize it.  Saying
that "Quality is undefined" doesn't leave us with nowhere to go; Quality,
like the Tao, may not be specifically defined, but for Pirsig's purposes, it
doesn't have to be.  "God is Love", on the other hand, IS a definition; it
is saying that "God" and "Love" are somehow equal, without ever saying what
either one is. "God is Love" is defining God and Love, without explaining
what these terms are referring to.  There are all kinds of love and I've
heard quite a few definitions of God, so unless you explain which ones you
mean, I have no idea of what you're talking about.



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