I almost posted this in the Philosophy section but I decided that it would be better to see if there was any interest first. This book was a big influence on my personal philosophy and I know that people who like this book just love it. I'm going to post a couple of excerpts in the hopes of drawing attention to a book that has a literary style I consider unique and profoundly significant. There is a link to the book in my signature, all comments welcome and free written posts are highly encouraged. Just relax and I hope you like the excerpts:

Phædrus' break occurred when, as a result of laboratory experience, he became interested in hypotheses as entities in themselves. He had noticed again and again in his lab work that what might seem to be the hardest part of scientific work, thinking up the hypotheses, was invariably the easiest. The act of formally writing everything down precisely and clearly seemed to suggest them. As he was testing hypothesis number one by experimental method a flood of other hypotheses would come to mind, and as he was testing these, some more came to mind, and as he was testing these, still more came to mind until it became painfully evident that as he continued testing hypotheses and eliminating them or confirming them their number did not decrease. It actually increased as he went along.

At first he found it amusing. He coined a law intended to have the humor of a Parkinson's law that "The number of rational hypotheses that can explain any given phenomenon is infinite." It pleased him never to run out of hypotheses. Even when his experimental work seemed dead-end in every conceivable way, he knew that if he just sat down and muddled about it long enough, sure enough, another hypothesis would come along. And it always did. It was only months after he had coined the law that he began to have some doubts about the humor or benefits of it.

If true, that law is not a minor flaw in scientific reasoning. The law is completely nihilistic. It is a catastrophic logical disproof of the general validity of all scientific method!

You might think he is questioning the validity of science but he is not. He is questioning whether of not science is quality free. This is only part of the discussion, he really didn't like Aristotelean philosophy. The real focus is on ancient Greece and he felt that this concept of 'quality' had been lost somewhere.

What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua...that's the only name I can think of for it...like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer. The Chautauquas were pushed aside by faster-paced radio, movies and TV, and it seems to me the change was not entirely an improvement. Perhaps because of these changes the stream of national consciousness moves faster now, and is broader, but it seems to run less deep.

So are you an environmentalist? This should resonate with you, I just fell in love with the hyperbole:

The "it" is a kind of force that gives rise to technology, something undefined, but inhuman, mechanical, lifeless, a blind monster, a death force. Something hideous they are running from but know they can never escape. I'm putting it way too heavily here but in a less emphatic and less defined way this is what it is. Somewhere there are people who understand it and run it but those are technologists, and they speak an inhuman language when describing what they do. It's all parts and relationships of unheard-of things that never make any sense no matter how often you hear about them. And their things, their monster keeps eating up land and polluting their air and lakes, and there is no way to strike back at it, and hardly any way to escape it.

I will not belabor the thread with pleadings to read and reflect on the book. If the book interests you and you would like to share your thoughts about it I would be delighted to read them. Otherwise, carry on web traveler and thank you for taking the time to view my post.

Read it. It's OK. Figured that's where your name came from... here's my summary of it in haiku:


the sentiment's right
no flag, no wind; the mind moves
Pirsig: too much mind

I appreciate the the response and I will puzzle over the haiku for some time.

I build motorcycles as a growing business- have the annual bike show today and the rest of the weekend. So far, nothing Zen about it this weekend- however- there is something ultimately Zen and spirit lifting about RIDING the motorcycle.

My own personal saying "Sometimes it takes a whole tank just to clear the mind"

To put this in perspective- I can go 400 miles on one tank.

Nirvana, even when I ride in the winter.

Sanity and spirituality are sometimes mutually exclusive.

I saw a picture once of Pirsig standing beside the BMW he made the trip on. It looked rustic and dusty and couldn't help but think it would be a lot of fun to ride. The thing I liked about the story is that his son is having mental problems, not unlike the ones he had experienced. His solution was to take him on a motorcycle road trip and it worked. Maybe Psychiatrists should consider a biker road trip therapy for the high strung, I'll bet it could work

I work at a mental institution- I would NEVER allow one of my clients to have a drivers license- much less a motorcycle endorsement!

Of course, I work with the "chronics"- the most mentally ill of the mentally ill.

The motorcycle riding helps me get rid of "those days"

If the mods will let me post a pic- I will post one of my 200k mile Honda Sabre that I ride in the snow- in the winter, in Alaska- all studded up and ready to roll!

No no, I don't think seriously psychotic people should be driving on our roads. Pirsig had a nervous break down and I'm sure you are well aware the depression can be life threating. When they become catatonic sometimes the only thing that can be done is electric shock. No one wants that but sometimes they have to or they will lose them. From the book:

He was dead. Destroyed by order of the court, enforced by the transmission of high-voltage alternating current through the lobes of his brain. Approximately 800 mills of amperage at durations of 0.5 to 1.5 seconds had been applied on twenty-eight consecutive occasions, in a process known technologically as "Annihilation ECS." A whole personality had been liquidated without a trace in a technologically faultless act that has defined our relationship ever since. I have never met him. Never will. (Cited and linked in my signiture)

He calls his former personality by the name of Phaedrus, a person from one of the Dialogues of Plato. It means 'wolf' and thus, my avatar is a wolf for that reason.



You could post a link if you like but they don't generally allow pics, in fact I have never seen that rule relaxed. Sounds like an awesome bike, wouldn't mind checking it out.

Just a note - we can all post our own pics in topics in Casual Conversation. If you need help resizing or uploading one, send it to Mike or me and we'll fix you right up.