Metaphors II

I was doing pretty well with my levels of confusion until I got to chapter 21, and then we moved from conventional to unconventional. The unconventional metaphors give new understanding to our experience. And I kind of like that, I like having the ability to grow and develop meanings for past events and experiences. On page 140 a list is given on things that can be loved or that are loved and there is a great deal of variability in what is loved. I am thinking back to my last blog post, which had something about perception of value and how it is related to the person. And I feel the same logic can be applied to love; ones cultural norms as well as personal values determine what they love. Thus presenting different items or ideas depending on whom you ask.

Of course the concept of truth is addressed. Concern is expressed when looking at truth and what is true because it is subjective. I have come to the conclusion that there is no truth. And that truth lies within the person because it is their perception of what is true. Last semester I took History and Theory of Rhetoric, and we got into Truth, like capital T truth.  The idea that nothing is actually true and it is all based on personal perception blew my mind; that was one of the days that I was mind-fucked.

“Metaphors cannot directly state truths, and, if they can state truths at all, it is only indirectly, via some non-metaphorical “literal” paraphrase.” (159) So from now on I’m not going to believe any metaphors because they are all false, right? Possibly, but on the other hand, metaphors are fairly useful when communicating. For me, I think it depends on the metaphor that is used. But that advise can be applied to pretty much anything, judgment and acceptance, and thus ones perception of truth depends on the situation as a whole.

“The objectivist program is unable to give a satisfactory account of human understanding and of any issues requiring such an account.” (222) I completely agree. It is difficult for a human to be objective, which in turn makes the objectivist program irrelevant for assessing anything human.  Objective isn’t how we as humans were programed to work. We can try out best and we often due; however being objective is incredibly difficult to almost impossible.

I remember hearing once that a world famous orchestra has people audition behind a black curtain. The judges sit in the audience, never knowing who the player is but only listening/ evaluating them on their musical ability. Even when the musician is finished playing the judges do not find out anything about them. This is one of the most objective practices I have heard of.  

Metaphors I

After only the first paragraph I had one thought: please, oh please don’t be another mindbender. There were a few days when we were talking about Zen that I left feeling even more confused than when we began; like absolutely mind-fucked!

“We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” (1)

This quote made me want to look up the definition of a metaphor, because I wanted to have a solid understanding before I went on. According to Merriam-Webster: a word or phrase for one thing that is used to refer to another thing in order to show or suggest that they are similar.” From the definition that I have provided, I’m beginning to get the feeling that a large onset of confusion is about to begin. OK, yes metaphors are common in everyday life, but they are given meaning by language and those who are speaking them or listening/ interpreting them. Before I broke it down like this I was really confused, however after my above sentence I am not as confused, but actually tend to agree with the quote. But then the second part, I do not believe that we think and act based on metaphors. If I believed that then essentially I would be looking for something similar to what I already have.

For some reason I think of the religious story the tower of Babble, and how everyone was forced to speak a different language. Here I feel like they were using metaphors to try to communicate, since there were no longer common words. The people of Babble had to try and show through actions what they were talking about to others because language was no longer useful to them.

Often in marketing we talk about consumer values and perception and how they relate to the cultural norms formed by society.  This quote demonstrates that even when looking outside of marketing/advertising, values and perception play a large role in understanding/acceptance. “In general, which values are given priority is partly a matter of the subculture on lives in and partly a matter of personal values.” (23) I would like to make a comment that this quote in a way almost contradicts it self. I believe that subculture plays a large role on how ones personal values are developed. Thus, subculture plays a larger role when talking about individual’s value preferences.

“We claim that most of our normal conceptual system is metaphorically structured; that is, most concepts are partially understood in terms of other concepts.” (56) I tend to agree with this idea, but it makes me think about when young children are learning the alphabet. At that age, they understand very few concepts, so I image it would be difficult to try and explain the letter A. I remember having wooden cut out letters, and the pictures that have the letter and an animal that starts with that letter, but I cant think of anything that could substitute the letter or something similar to it, other than another letter.

Bringing us a little further in young education what about the word the.  The is just the, it cant be replaced or substituted and when you look for its synonyms none exist. So how does a concept like the get taught?  I asked myself the meaning of the, and couldn’t seem to come up with a very good answer, other than it specifies something.

I again looked on Merriam-Webster dictionary and the is: used to indicate a person or thing that has already been mentioned or seen or is clearly understood from the situation; used to refer to things or people that are common in daily life; and used to refer to things that occur in nature.” Simply because I use language I know when to use the, but for a young child that is just beginning to learn language I would image it to be very difficult.

Part IV

“Quality lay not only outside any academic discipline, it lay outside the grasp of the methods of the entire Church of Reason” (344). Finally we get to some truth about Quality. The definition of Quality and its determining factors are outside of what we can rationally reason without sounding crazy. Quality again has presented itself as a very slippery slope, a rabbit hole of sorts and I dislike it. I have never been someone to reside in the gray area, and that is where I feel capital Q Quality resides. Yes, it has general parameters but they are minimally defined and an argument can be pretty much made on anything in favor of its Quality.

I really struggle to see the logic behind Pirsig’s “personal feeling that this is how any further improvement of the world will be done: by individuals making Quality decisions and that’s all” (367). Again Quality is determined by the individual making the assessment or in this case decision. So what Pirsig values as a Quality decision may not be seen by others as a Quality choice. After reading this book and being forced to focus on Quality, I feel like the Quality our author is talking about is achieved by making choices you would be proud of. Quality is something you put forward everyday, like a stamp of excellency; you are the only one that is able to out limits on your level of Quality. 

Part III

Part III

I think Phaedrus’s reaction to Quality (214) is how I and many of my classmates are feeling about it. Quality, not quality but capital Q Quality; but what does that really mean? What creates Quality, because I see it as a very personal interpretation? We can’t place one, blanket definition on Quality because everyone has his or her own determining factors of Quality.

Pirsig claims that Phaedrus said in one of his papers that, “ These estheticians think their subject is some king of peppermint bonbon they’re entitled to smack their fat lips on; something to be devoured; something to be intellectually knifed, forked and spooned up bit by bit with appropriate delicate remarks and I’m ready to throw up.”

I like this for two reasons; firstly this is one of the first times that I really enjoyed Pirsig’s writing. I liked the deliberate description that took place. Even though it’s just a sentence made up of words, it jumps out to me and I appreciate when a writer does that.  As a business student and a student in general I see a lot of writing that does not speak to me or essentially draw me into the text. So when a writer does that I get super excited because I know I’m about to enjoy reading.

I also wanted to point out this passage because when I first read it I had this image of a young man, Phaedrus, really writing this about Quality to an ancient scholar of that time. I imagined Phaedrus to be a sharp boy, brimming with witty comments always ready to challenge his teachers even when he knew it would get him in trouble. From my perception of Phaedrus this was a prefect comment, scorning those damn peppermint bonbons.

I was kind of caught by surprise when Pirsig flat out just says he wanted to go into some day to day information. But what really got me is when he says “and I’m not quite sure how to go about this” (260). I have been recently thinking about the different styles and approaches there are to writing, especially because my new job has me writing as someone who is well versed in genetic research. I could never say “and I’m not quite sure how to go about this,” it just wouldn’t be acceptable. Firstly I could never actually use I in my writing because it is scientific/ research driven. Additionally I would lose credibility. Here I feel like there is something to be said for Pirsig’s honest attempt at going about conveying this information, where as if I said that, I would instantly be discredited. In Pirsig’s example he could almost be called wise, because he is admitting to his lack of ability. It reminds me very much of Socrates and his belief that we in fact know little to nothing.

Back to capital Q Quality. I was frustrated by the notion that Pirsig gives, “ it’s our habit of assigning Quality to subject or objects that give this impression” (297). However we still do not have a clear or in my opinion complete definition of Quality. And if we go back to my above rant on Quality the point comes up again that we give Quality to subject or objects based on personal perception of Quality, which I am beginning to interpret and interchange with value. However, value seems to be more easily defined, with many individuals finding the same properties valuable.  

Part II

This section caught my eye, and I didn’t really get it on the first read, but after re-reading I really like it: “Precision instruments are designed to achieve an idea, dimensional precision, whose perfection is impossible.” And in fact I like the whole paragraph, because you really cant understand the meaning with out the context and specifically the final two sentences, “He thinks I’m working on parts. I’m working on concepts.”(100) I can’t really tell you why I like this so much, but I do. It makes me think of life as just a bunch of parts that make up the whole. Without a certain part the bike doesn’t run correctly, and in essence life doesn’t run as smoothly either.

The other part that stands out is Pirsig’s point that “perfection is impossible.” You can try all you want but sometimes, most of the time, we don’t achieve perfection. I think it is wise to remember this going in, however it does not mean that one should not shoot for perfection.

When Pirsig’s talks about “high country” (127) I had to go back just to make sure he wasn’t still talking about Montana. The high country that he is talking about reminds me of when I lived in the wilderness for three months. There is a sense of thinness in the air and stretching in the mind that occurs from deep within our thoughts. I feel like in the late 60’s early 70’s people did not live by their technology as they do now, so it would have been easier, especially in the middle of no-where Montana to find Pirsig’s “high country.” I kind of find it contradictory that Pirsig has shut down Chris’s questions but then talks about finding high country and says, “and to the enormous magnitude of questions asked, and to the answers proposed to these questions.” I get the sense that high country is achieved by asking questions to learn about the world around you, however Pirsig does a really poor job at encouraging the same from his son. I feel like with Pirsig’s background and education he would have been open to Chris wanting to learn, how else are you supposed to learn if you don’t ask questions? I’m also picking up a bit of a sophist aspect to high country. 

-       I Googled Pirsig and found out that his father served as the law school dean at U. of Minnesota. He attended U. of Minnesota for biochemistry and later, 1958, became a creative writing professor at MSU

            The paragraph beginning with, “Academic standards were demolished,” (147) really surprised me. I had never known that that had even happened, or thought that it could happen. I understand that MSU and U of M are not private schools, however I didn’t think that educational institutes could be bullied like this. In one respect I really like the idea of everyone being admitted to college, however not having a high school diploma and getting in seems a little unreasonable. I’m a little lost for the time, but I don’t think we have moved very far from the beginning of the motorcycle trip. So, I guess I’m wondering if this was a national movement or something that was just going on in Montana because I have never heard of this.

We keep reverting to this idea that the minimum is good enough, that people will be astounded if you simply just do your job. I hate saying and I hate having it confirmed as I start to get into the work world. This quote, in part, sums up what I am beginning to learn, “most people would have forgotten about Quality at this point, or just left it hanging suspended because they were getting nowhere and had other things to do.” (183) You rarely seem people up effort in or take pride in their work, that’s why Quality is so often lost.