Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Dirkmonger · Visitor Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 9 Local time: 3:20 PM

Just wondering how many other people have read this book and what you thought?

For those who aren't familiar this is a unique book. It's far less concerned with motorcycles or Zen then it is a meta-physics of reality.
I'd personally go so far as to say it is, to me, the most important book I've ever read.

rickcopeland648 · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:59 am Post subject:

I've read it a couple times and always enjoy it. Pirsig has had quite a life, and I've always had huge sympathies toward Zen. It's certainly pop philosophy, and that's not a bad thing necessarily.
His follow-up "Lila" takes his notion of the "metaphysics of quality" further by breaking it up into static and dynamic aspects. It also is interesting, but not nearly as good with regard to plot.
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SvZurich · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:03 am Post subject:

Welcome Dirk! Very Happy

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Nimitz · Guest Local time: 3:20 PM

I have a copy of it as well. You don't have to be a bike rider to enjoy it. But, if you've ever spent a long afternoon ripping the guts out of a sportster transmission it does touch a place in your heart. You and your shifting dogs can become one with the road.

You just have to make sure your gears mesh properly and are in the right order. Understand that each has it's function and relationship to the other and to the whole of the trasmission, the bike, and to the journey it takes you on if all spin smoothly.

Remember that even if you do everything correctly you can still wind up as a hood ornament on a Kenworth!

Dirkmonger · Visitor Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 9 Local time: 3:20 PM

Dirkmonger · Visitor Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 9 Local time: 3:20 PM

It has crossed my mind that people will never let go of organised religion, no matter how convincing Richard Dawkins is, while there is no other, accessible, philosophy to replace it that will lead to enlightenment, fullfillment and happiness.

A standard argument is being put forward that without religion people would do whatever they want, specifically many bad things. Richard Dawkins counters this with the argument that people are able to pick and choose which moral values they agree with in the Bible anyway and ignore the ones they don't, so the Bible/religion are not the source of moral values.

Right about now would be the time for Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality to explain how it is that you that you do have an internal sense of what is right.

"But suppose you do just what you like? Does that mean you're going to go out and shoot heroin, rob banks and rape old ladies? The person who is counseling you not to do "just as you like" is making some remarkable presumptions as to what is likable." - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

rickcopeland648 · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:41 pm Post subject:

I didn't mean to denigrate Pirsig by calling him "pop philosophy". By "pop" iI simply meant "popular", as opposed to... say Hume or Heidegger.
I don't know how many copies Pirsig still sells, but I'm sure you're right in that it's considerable-- again especially for a philosophy book.
_________________
“I think it’s also important for the President to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”
-- George W. Bush on Clinton's involvement in Kosovo, 1999

"Syphilis is the algebra of infection."

(\ /)
(O.o)
(> <)
Can't... fight... any... longer... must.. help.. bunny.. achieve.. global.. domination.. All.. hail... bunny...
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Dirkmonger · Visitor Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 9 Local time: 3:20 PM

No problem, I thought you meant it the other way.

Bunnies rule.

Milvushina · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:48 pm Post subject:

I've read this book too. I was about 19 at the time, it still remains one of my favorites. Pirsig makes you think about subjective ideas like "value", about Eastern philosophies, and if I remember correctly about blending the mystical with the scientific/logical. At the time I read it it disturbed me a little, because I had just never "gone there" mentally before! It's such a good introduction to philosophy for people who are daunted by reading stuff like Plate or Hume etc. etc.
There is another book, Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (I may not have spelled that right but I'm too lazy to Google) that's just a great crash course on the basics of philosophy. Another you could call "pop" philosophy not because it's shallow, but because it's a good book with the ability to appeal to a whole lot of people.

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