Source Of Rationality—Quality

Pirsig Discussion Continues
Ottawa Pub

"Did you ever consider that you, Jim, might yourself be split," Riley
responded. "I'm sure you're familiar with the dualisms spirit/matter,
myth/rationality, mind/body, logic/emotion, —the list goes on and on.
Dualities, especially the science/humanities split, was troublesome to
Phaedrus because he was afraid that science and technology,
runaway technology, was dehumanizing the humanities, dehumanizing
humans. For him, the separation between feeling and reason was not
just a mind-body thing; it was the `stake in the heart' of
understanding itself. In the end, his struggle with the
classic/romantic dichotomy, his failure to merge formal thought
processes with immediate intuition put his mind in freefall."

"If you ask me, Phaedrus spent way too much of his time analyzing the
Greeks," Jim replied. "No wonder he lost it. It's a cruel world out
there. Accept it, and get on with your business. That's the way to
stay sane. Dualisms are a product of antiquated thinking, but I don't
expect them to disappear. `Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,' isn't that
what the Bible says. Maybe we should take a lesson from the Good Book.
That's all there is you know, just dirt. If only people would wake up
and smell them roses then maybe everybody would get out of the way and
let science and technology do what it does best, create better living
through chemistry and physics."

"And what about goodness, love, and beauty," Riley interjected.

"Oh, they'll still be around," Jim replied, "Its just that they will
take their rightful place behind the real stuff. After all, you can't
feed people with goodness. Sometimes it's hard to understand that, right!"

"No wonder Phaedrus was so distraught over the state of Western
values," replied Riley, "With people like you around, we'll never get
past the thinking that made Phaedrus so fanatical about values in the
first place. The intolerable schism between fact and value, between
`out there' and `in here,' turns people into strangers in their own
minds, and Phaedrus knew that. Replacing goodness, love, and beauty,
with stimulus/response mechanisms was never an option for him. His
passionate combativeness pushed him over the edge, and, unfortunately,
we are left with an unfinished account of Phaedrus' journey, a journey
that claimed ‘quality to be the source of rationality.’"