In his attempt to unite the Good and the True by making the Good the highest Idea of all, Plato is nevertheless usurping aretê's place with dialectic… - Robert M. Pirsig
""
In his attempt to unite the Good and the True by making the Good the highest Idea of all, Plato is nevertheless usurping aretê's place with dialectically determined truth. Once the Good has been contained as a dialectical idea it is no trouble for another philosopher to come along and show by dialectical methods that aretê, the Good, can be more advantageously demoted to a lower position within a "true" order of things, more compatible with the inner workings of dialectic. Such a philosopher was not long in coming. His name was Aristotle.
Robert Maynard Pirsig (6 September 1928 – 24 April 2017) was an American philosopher and novelist, most famous for his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in which he proposed what has become known as his Metaphysics of Quality (MoQ).
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Ian Glendinning, en:User:IanGlendinning (CC BY)
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Robert Maynard Pirsig
•
Robert Pirsig
To an experienced Zen Buddhist, asking if one believes in Zen or one believes in the Buddha, sounds a little ludicrous, like asking if one believes in air or water. Similarly Quality is not something you believe in, Quality is something you experience.
