What, Why & How do we Know ?
Following the mid-western road-trip to Wyoming & Montana, I’ve uploaded some photos. Lots of general scenery and wildlife in Teton and Yellowstone amongst other places, and for Pirsig fans, some relevant ZMM locations …
Hebgen Lake, Bozeman and Gardiner
The Beartooth Highway – between Gardiner and Laurel
Meeting Mark Richardson in Hill City
A private / temporary web-based file-sharing system, also via McLuhan’s (Next) Message.
An interview with Michael Ignatieff posted at Mcluhan’s (Next) Message. Struck by the reference to the hypocrisy of literalism …
Amongst “friends” we recognise that what someone means is more fundamental than what they actually say … but somehow in organised public life we use the flip-side … and interpret our own meaning into the words people literally use, at their expense … a kind of contractual exploitation ?
Another example of the “hypocrisy” demanding our pounds of flesh.
I happen to be reading Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell” at the moment, so refreshing after Dawkins (creator of the “extended-phenotype” term) attempt on the same topic. Dennett opens early in his book with the lancet-fluke & ant example to illustrate the “viral” metaphor of a meme infecting a brain producing behaviour inexplicable in terms of the brain’s host’s interests.
The examples here, collected by Neurophilosophy are fungal / ants (and other arthropods), and worm / arthropod cases – but excellent illustrations, if a little gruesome for the squeamish.
After the width of Kansas, we continued after Colorado, via Cheyenne, Laramie, Jackson Hole (Wyoming), Teton Park, Yellowstone Park, Gallatin Forest (Idaho & Montana), and Beartooth highway – now east of Billings MT.
Spectacular 13,000 ft peaks above the lakes in Teton, and a spectacular 10,900 ft highway (above the glaciers) over Beartooth. (So much variety of high ground in fact – we loved southern Wyoming before we even got to the Teton and Yellowstone parks.) Elk, deer, buffalo, coyote, chipmunks, ground-squirrels, and eagles along the way.
Early Saturday morning into Missouri, St. Louis, on to Kansas City, across Kansas the long way to Limon, Colorado.
Off on our hols. Left after work Friday from Alabama, via Nashville, Tennessee, across Kentucky and into Illinois, to Nashville, Illinois.
I was reading the Christie Hefner interview with Robert Pirsig from summer 1975, published in “Oui” magazine in November that year, and noticed that he makes what must the first published reference to his “Metaphysics of Quality”. I’ve added a link in the 1975 entry in my Pirsig Timeline (July 2007 updates) [Note the link is a 1.6Meg PDF scanned file.]
Post Note : In response to David’s question in the comments below … the reference to “metaphysics of quality” is in the middle column of page 124, where he is describing the agenda of his next book, and says …
“If you can find the causes of the differences [between the value systems of different ethnic groups] you can also find the sources of cohesiveness. I’m applying the metaphysics of quality and trying to figure out what it is causes cultures to hate one another year after year.”
Not capitalized (by the interviewer), but in 1975 the first time the expression is recorded. The nearest thing in ZMM (1974) where Quality itself is mentioned ad infinitum, was in Chapter 28 …
“He had become so caught up in his own world of Quality metaphysics he couldn’t see outside it anymore, and since no one else understood this world, he was already done for.”
I interpret this here as the general subject of metaphysics wherever he can find relevance to quality, rather than the concept of “The” Metaphysics of Quality.
Not mine you understand, Psybertron is approaching six, but ten years since the whole concept was invented by Jorn who, it seems, is still writing the rules.
I appreciate, but don’t quite have the discipline needed for the pared-down and pre-emptive lnking style, but fully accept the timeline / quality arrangements rather than illusory ontologies. In the semantic web, the semantics are the result, not the framework.
I just blogged about Colin Talbot‘s “Paradoxical Primate” which despite the unlikely sounding TLA (Three Letter Acronym) “PST” (Paradoxical Systems Theory) jargon, and the negative review I initially stumbled upon, I found the subject and title headings sufficiently attractive to order a copy.
I’d just renewed contact with Bruce Charlton only a couple of days ago, someone I’d come across previously as a writer who cited the applicability of Pirsig’s work in the health-care business (as does James Willis) though the Pirsig connection is incidental to the subject matter.
Well, browsing Colin’s book at Amazon I browsed the citations list. Lo and behold “Paradoxical Primate” cites Bruce Charlton’s “Modernization Imperative“, and it turns out Bruce was unaware of this.
Post Note : In fact there is no citation. Amazon’s link collects up references to other books by the same publisher inside the back cover. Anyway, having read Colin Talbot’s Paradoxical Primate – I find little to add – it’s a book I could have written myself – excellent; all my own agenda points very well made. Spooky. Must post a more detailed review.)
Anyway, “Modernization Imperative” looks very interesting too, on the subject of systems of governance. I’ll blog a more detailed review later.
Interestingly Bruce Charlton also edits “Medical Hypotheses” whose editorial policy includes this:
Medical Hypotheses takes a deliberately different approach to peer review. Most contemporary practice tends to discriminate against radical ideas that conflict with current theory and practice. Medical Hypotheses will publish radical ideas, so long as they are coherent and clearly expressed. Furthermore, traditional peer review can oblige authors to distort their true views to satisfy referees, and so diminish authorial responsibility and accountability.
Worth linking to Nick Maxwell’s stuff on the neurosis of science, in presuming the only way to proceed is direct to critical review and empirical test, do not pass go. Brian Josephson would approve of the suspension of the over-skeptical response (pathological disbelief) to the radical too.