Motorcycle Zen is a philosophical stance and state of mind that originated and was developed on the Zensylvania website and podcast.
Origins
Etymology
Philosophical Stance
See Also
References & Notes
External Links
Between the horns of dualism.
Origins
The term Motorcycle Zen first appeared on the Zensylvania website and podcast on September 22, 2021 at 19:21. Eric Adriaans used the term to describe several concepts and rhetorical methods observed in Robert Pirsig’s 1974 book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Motorcycle Zen is an abbreviation of Pirsig’s iconic book title but is not intended to be a faithful mirroring of its ideas.
Etymology
The term Motorcycle Zen is derived from the words motorcycle and zen.
The word Zen is from the term assigned to a specific set of philosophical positions, aesthetic practices and daily-living techniques which were formalized in Japan from the seventh century through to the present.
The word Motorcycle is a compound word denoting a two- or three-wheeled motorized vehicle. The root-word motor indicates a rotating mechanism or machine that imparts motion by converting energy from one form (eg. electricity, fuel) to another (eg. mechanical energy, experience) . The root-word cycle is derived from bicycle or tricycle, which more typically refers to two- or three-wheeled vehicles where a human serves as the motor, converting energy into motion via pedals, a chain and gears.
Philosophical Stance
In Zensylvania, motorcycle is intended to be interpreted as a metaphor and potential avatar of the self in consideration of the human condition. In usage as a metaphor, the term may include a range of motorized and non-motorized vehicles in addition to the two-wheeled variety.
Motorcycle Zen, as used in Zensylvania, is an open-minded, contemplative inquiry into formulation of a coherent, logical, necessary personal philosophy which offers the opportunity to individually reconcile twenty-first century human experience and allows every element of our experience to be interpreted.
The stance surveys and incorporates elements of alternate philosophies, perspectives and fields such as stoicism, pragmatism, Zen, process philosophy, biosemiotics, mathematics, machine learning and logic on a contingent (provisional, limited-extent) and instrumental basis.
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If your compass does not point towards Quality, where does it point?
Introduction
I wanted to start this essay with a reasonably brief and straight-forward definition of the word “quality”. As it turns out, I couldn’t find a practical definition that I was satisfied with. It may be a peculiar trait of mine that I prefer a word’s or concept’s definition not to contain words or concepts that merely point straight back to place I started. Like some semantic Ouroboros eating its own tail. Unfortunately, definitions for the word “quality” often circle back on themselves.
For example, Merriam-Webster’s definition says that quality is “a degree of excellence”. Follow-through on this information and you find that excellence is “an excellent or valuable quality” and that “excellent is very good of its kind : eminently good.“. Of course something that is “eminently good” means that it is observably good. Next we find that good is something that is “of a favourable character” or “conforming to a standard” among other things. Finally, something that is of a favourable character is something we favour or prefer while a standard is of course “something set up and established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality“.
It’s like that with all of the definitions that I’ve looked at so far – a somewhat fuzzy realm of subjective preferability and objective standardization.
The extraordinary fuzziness and variability of what may be contained within the term “quality” is somewhat surprising but hardly a new matter. Every one of us has some degree of self-assuredness that we know what is or is not of good quality. So certain are we that Pirsig quoted Plato as a kind of heading to ZAMM with And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good – Need we ask anyone to tell us these things? We’ve always known what is or is not good….we have our own fuzzy logic system to determine what meets our individual and ever-changing mix of subjective preferences and objective standards.
Regular visitors to Zensylvania will probably be familiar with Zensyalvania’s ongoing preoccupation with Robert Pirsig’s books, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals. I have readily used Pirsig’s books as touchstones within several investigations and inquiries. These two books are categorized by some people as works of philosophical fiction. This categorization describes a situation where a story is used as the setting, context or framing for some particular philosophical material to be conveyed.
While it is tempting to spend time quibbling over the extent to which the categorization of any book or work as philosophical fiction is meaningful, and indeed the extent to which the term reasonably applies to Pirsig’s books, I’m going to avoid doing that for now. It may be something to examine at some later time. Instead, I’m going to go along with this particular application of the analytical knife because it is clear that Pirsig’s books are intended to communicate some particular philosophical content and that they are fictionalized versions of Pirsig’s life, if not entirely fiction.
The particular philosophical content that the books convey has come to be known as the Metaphysics of Quality. And that is where we’re going to start in this essay.
‘Start” may not be exactly the correct term since that really began in Episode 15, when I spent some time in review of a book titled On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence. This is a posthumously published collection of Pirsig’s comments and insights into the Metaphysics of Quality which was released in March of 2022. For this essay, I want to begin by returning to some of my comments from that Zensylvania episode. If you’ve previously reviewed that episode, this may be slightly repetitive, I hope to mitigate any sense of redundancy by expanding on the initial reactions I had.
All of this will be in an effort to pin down a few basic questions when it comes to the Metaphysics of Quality.
Quality Undefined: MovingTowards an Initial Definition
Throughout ZAMM and much of Lila, Pirsig avoided providing a definition of “Quality”. On page 97 of On Quality, there is an excerpt from his 1974 lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he said that, “One of the advantage of keeping Quality undefined – which is central to [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]…as long as you keep it undefined, then it becomes an instrument of change, and you can grow, because the things that you find Quality in are going to change as you grow.“
Despite his early motivation to avoid providing a definition of Quality, Pirsig eventually used the term as a direct or indirect referent to a variety of other concepts which I am listing here:
God
the phoneme “rta” from the Proto-Indo-European language
the essence of experience
selection
meaning
dharma
the pure thing (Hindu traditions); the pure non-thing (Buddhist traditions)
“what holds together”
righteousness; rightness
the stable condition which gives man perfect satisfaction
duty toward self
virtue of the ancient Greeks
the Cosmic order of things
spirituality
Metaphysics of Quality is Metaphysics of Spirituality
the Tao
This is probably an incomplete list as Pirsig admitted to a preparedness to talk about Quality for hours on end without establishing a firm meaning. Initially, I’d like to focus on the third item in this list, “the essence of experience” as it introduces two underlying connections that should be examined.
In David Grainger‘s 2006 book, John Dewey, Robert Pirsig and the Art of Living: Revisioning Aesthetic Education, Grainger suggests that Pirsig’s idea of Quality is equivalent to Dewey’s idea of “Experience“. For those who may be interested to verify for themselves whether Grainger’s comparison is correct, he seems to rely upon Dewey’s Art as Experience and Experience and Education. You can be sure that these are on my acquisition list for 2023.
In the meantime, here are a few ideas from Dewey. Ordinary experience has no structure. It is a continuous stream. The subject (i.e. person) goes through the experience of living but does not experience everything in a way that composes an experience. Meanwhile an aesthetic experience is a kind of event which stands out from the ordinary or general experience. While I don’t pretend to any kind of authority to correct or alter Dewey’s terminology…it occurs to me that Dewey was establishing that Aesthetic Experience is at least partially comprised of definable events while Ordinary Experience is not. Experiences are structured situations over time – however fuzzy may be the definition of the experience’s actual beginning or end.
Dewey’s ideas do seem to echo Pirsig’s notions of Static and Dynamic Quality where Static Quality seems to share some attributes with Dewey’s Aesthetic Experience and Dynamic Quality with Ordinary Experience.
In FSC Northrop’s The Meeting of East and West (that is the book which Pirsig credits with closing his youthful period of drifting and lending direction to his life, there is a passage about “undifferentiated aesthetic continuum” and “experience”.
Later in this essay I will look at A.N. Whitehead’s Process and Reality but for now let me suggest that if there are parallels between Pirsig’s “Quality” and Dewey’s “Experience”, these may also be aligned with Whitehead’s “Process”: “The process is nothing else than the experiencing subject itself. In this explanation, it is presumed that an experiencing subject is an occasion of sensitive reaction to an actual world.”
Granger references’ Heisenberg’s Principle of Indeterminacy and says something that links these things together, “all existences, material and ideational, are best viewed as events rather than substances.“
And this leads me to the observation that
Quality is an event.
What is Quality?: Toward a Second Definition
In order that we may get at what Pirsig may have been trying to convey in the Metaphysics of Quality, it seems essential to get at the individual terms in the phrase. I’m going to set aside the term metaphysics for now except to accept a kind of common-knowledge definition of metaphysics as the part(s) of philosophy which deal(s) with the fundamental nature of reality and existence and, by extension, those parts of reality and existence which don’t (at least superficially) appear to have a source or cause in physical, objective sources.
Provisionally I am interpreting the phrase “Metaphysics of Quality” such that the word “of” is a function word indicating origin or derivation. So the phrase, “metaphysics of quality” means: an explanation of the fundamental nature of reality and existence where quality is the original source or cause. Another way to phrase it might be that reality and existence is derived from a primordial Quality.
And now we have the question…what is “Quality“?
Since the Metphysics of Quality is Pirsig’s notion, it seems only fair to begin with explanations that he’s provided. But we will get to some other explanations that I’ve found interesting during that time I’ve been examining the idea….and, of course, also to some of my own observations.
In On Quality, there is an excerpt from a letter dated September 11, 1994 and it includes this brief section:
“Quality can be equated with God, but I don’t like to do so, “God” to most people is a set of static intellectual and social patterns. Only true religious mystics can correctly equate God with Dynamic Quality. In the West, particularly around universities, these people are quite rare. The others, who go around saying, “God wants this,” or “God will answer your prayers,” are, according to the Metaphysics of Quality, engaging in a minor form of evil. Such statements are a lower form of evolution, intellectual patterns, attempting to contain a higher one….” (pg. 81)
This seems to be a good place to start because it establishes and gives shape to a few specific traits that Pirsig posited about Quality. So I want to parse the various phrases here in an attempt to determine what he may have intended.
First he says that “Quality can be equated with God“. I want to take notice that Pirsig did not say “Quality is God“, only that “Quality can be equated with God”. Philosophy can readily be an exercise in splitting and re-splitting of conceptual hairs, but this is one that does seem to need to be split. The difference between the phrase “Quality is God” and “Quality can be equated with God” is meaningful because the concept of equivalence (as represented by the words “equated with“) is not that of sameness (As represented by the word “is“).
By saying “Quality can be equated with God“, Pirsig seems to be suggesting a comparison of two separate concepts based upon a function. The specific function being described is, as established in the brief definition above, that of an original source or cause.
In other words, Pirsig’s Quality functions in his metaphysical system as a monism in a similar fashion to how God functions as a monism in some other metaphysical systems.
The balance of Pirsig’s passage is an attempt to steer examination of “Quality” away from theology. Undoubtedly, there are a number of very good reasons to do that. But it is also very difficult to establish an existential origin story without having to engage the argument for a primordial entity or agent of creation. A deity. When I read Pirsig, I have the sense that he tries to do so.
Of course trying to posit an existential origin story without a deity causes some people a great deal of difficulty. And that maybe one of the reasons that Pirsig phrased things the way that he did. The Metaphysics of Quality is an explanation of existence and reality where the concept of “Quality” functions as the concept of “God” in separate and distinct existential origin stories. Discussion of “Quality” is not, therefore, a theological discussion on the nature of a deity.
Quality vs quality vs qualities: Towards a Third Definition
Now that we’ve established, to a limited extent, what Robert Pirsig had in mind in his Metaphysics of Quality, I’d like to get back to some more practical and familiar conceptions of quality.
In the day to day usage of the term, we may be quite comfortable with referring to any given thing or experience as being of high or low quality or perhaps alternately good quality or poor quality. In other words, we are readily able to assign a value to a thing or experience based upon some collection of subjective (personally perceived) traits and objective (empirically measurable) characteristics.
If we are, for example, visiting an auto-parts store to purchase a bolt to replace one that has broken during a repair on our motorcycle, we might say that a particular store-clerk’s dismissive attitude or lack of knowledge regarding engine bolts was a low quality service; similarly we might feel that the purchased bolt was of excellent quality as its metallurgy and machining met the specifications for the bolt’s purpose. Our subjective and objective criteria either were or were not met.
Often these criteria are considered to be “qualities” of the item or experience. A store clerk’s attentiveness is one quality while their product knowledge is another quality. Similarly, the bolt’s metallurgy and machining are sometimes referred-to as qualities.
This use of the term quality in day-to-day use is actually problematic as these ought more accurately to be referred to as: properties, factors, components, elements, constituents, items (a variety of other terms might easily be added) of the artifact’s or experience’s overall quality.
In this way, quality (and even qualities) are a set of subjective and objective measurements of an artifact’s or experience’s ability to fulfill its defined or expected purpose.
It would be correct, albeit slightly absurd, to argue that a banana makes a very poor quality engine bolt nor that an engine bolt is a low quality snack. Clearly, banana’s are not intended to be engine bolts and engine bolts are not machined for human nutrition. This means that defined purpose is an important and meaningful consideration. Defined purpose is another way to say that quality is relational and that the quality of an artifact or experience is normally assessed in context of an expected or defined purpose.
Fuzzy Standards: Synthesis of the Definitions
This is where the title of this essay considers what I’m calling “fuzzy standards”. While I am not completely aware whether this term that I’ve used is completely novel, I will say that it derives from my Incomplete Exploration(s) of Fuzzy Logic and concepts therein.
Within Fuzzy Logic, there are so-called Fuzzy Sets which comprise a predetermined set of conditions to inform an input-output decision making model. In this situation, the Fuzzy Set attempts to allow for a nearly infinite range of possibilities between 0 and 1 (the ultimately reductive binary either/or). In a binary-digital world, engine oil might be called either “hot” (denoted by 1) or “cold” (denoted by 0). Clearly this is not correct as temperature is almost infinitely variable and could be assigned a nearly infinite range of temperatures based on the extent to which more (or less) heat is present.
I mention this as an indication that “Fuzzy Standards” begins to consider the matter of the phrase ” the extent to which” in setting of standards within a Dynamic Quality world.
I’ve borrowed Pirsig’s term Dynamic Quality and the fact that a perpetually changing world fundamentally establishes that any standard (eg. a specific oil temperature, a particular metallurgical composition of a bolt, a depth of knowledge of a clerk) must necessarily be fuzzy (situationally-defined) and relational.
The Metaphysics of Quality and The Philosophy of Organism
In Episode 15, I commented that I felt this passage maintains Pirsig’s inquiries in alignment with humanist enlightenment ideas and also some ideas that Alfred North Whitehead expressed in Process and Reality.
Alfred North Whitehead
In that book, Whitehead provided what he called the “Philosophy of Organism“. In my opinion, Pirsig’s philosophy is well-aligned with many of Whitehead’s ideas.
Whitehead opened Process and Reality with the declaration that “This course of lectures is designed as an essay in Speculative Philosophy.” and then goes on to define and defend speculative philosophy. Well Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality is also an exercise in Speculative Philosophy. Here is Whitehead’s definition “Speculative Philosophy:
Speculative Philosophy is the endeavour to form a coherent, logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted.
Since Whitehead was a thorough-going philosopher, he proceeded to provide definitions for most of the terms used in the definition. I’m not going to chase that all down at present. I’m including it here in our consideration of Quality to help set the setting for Pirsig’s definitions (since there have been many) of Quality as a concept within a Speculative Philosophy system as presented by Whitehead.
“I ride, therefore I am.”: Rene Descartes would have written it, if only he’d had the opportunity; Photo Courtesy Pinterest
In Whitehead’s preface to Process and Reality, he explained his approach in contrast to others when he wrote that “The positive doctrine of these lectures is concerned with the becoming, the being, and the relatedness of ‘actual entities’. An ‘actual entity’ is a res vera in the Cartesian sense of that term; it is a Cartesian ‘substance’, and not an Aristotelian ‘primary substance’. But Descartes retained in his metaphysical doctrine the Aristotelian dominance of the category of ‘quality’ over that of ‘relatedness’. In these lectures ‘relatedness’ is dominant over ‘quality’.”
Whitehead goes on to give a brief summary of relatedness but again I’m going to defer examination of this to focus on the similarity in approach between Pirsig and Whitehead, specifically that the positioning of quality within a metaphysical system is a meaningful part of that system.
Returning to the earlier passage by Robert Pirsig that Quality can be equated to God, I am grateful that Wendy Pirsig and the editors of the book didn’t shy away from including this passage as it does positively establish the kind of metaphysical positioning of Quality that Pirsig reached.
All of that is to say that Pirsig’s capital-Q “Quality” term may be readily separated from common day-to-day usage of the term since the underlying position of the term is different than a subject-object-relational metaphysics as found in Rene Descarte’s outlook.
I say separate – but that may not be the right term as Pirsig did further divide Quality into “Dynamic Quality” and “Static Quality”.
A Provisional Definition of Quality
While it is certainly tempting to continue running down various rabbit-holes… I think we’ve actually reached a good point to finalize and summarize a provisional definition of Quality.
Quality is an event which a subjective experiencer (an actual entity) has a relationship-to within an actual (objectively real) world; in static form, quality is the aggregation (or fuzzy set) of subjective and objective measurements of an artifact’s or experience’s ability to fulfill its defined or expected purpose(s) and is consistent with a delimited Aesthetic Experience within an ongoing Undifferentiated Aesthetic Continuum. In dynamic form, Quality is that which mediates relations between an undifferentiated aesthetic continuum and actual entities. Quality is an idea and term which allows every element of our experience to be interpreted. It functions as a monism and may be best described via the metaphor of a field.
(Editorial Note: the above definition is a second revision circa December 2022).
I hope this jumble of metaphysical jargon is as clear to you as it is me. I will admit that I find it extremely satisfying that this definition has not yet resulted in an Ouroboros–like circle where I end up staying that quality is quality and we all know what it is.
Strangely, I also find that this definition has both practical daily applications which may be just as useful as any metaphysical implications that there may be.
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On the interior panel of the dust jacket cover of On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence, there is a brief proclamation attributed to Robert M. Pirsig that “The ultimate goal in the pursuit of excellence is enlightenment.” This was, apparently, Pirsig’s opinion in 1962 – well before either of Pirsig’s more famous books Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or Lila, were published. On Quality, has been published posthumously and a few short months ago. For reasons peculiar to my own interests and inquiries, this proclamation strikes me as tremendously important as well as being something that might just take one down a long path of discovery.
This observation that one of Robert Pirsig’s sentences bears the potential for protracted curiosity is fully consistent with my experience of examining Pirsig’s earlier books. There is usually something to explore, contend-with or discover just about anywhere one happens to open the book.
For example, as I’ve not yet run down the relationship between “enlightenment” and “excellence”, I’m not confident that I fully agree that the ultimate goal in the pursuit of excellence is enlightenment. Perhaps for Pirsig it seemed to be. Having reflected on that sentence, I would actually prefer if Pirsig had claimed that the “ultimate goal in the pursuit of enlightenment is excellence.” My revision of Pirsig’s circa 1962 sentence seems, at least to me, to be more in keeping with the Metaphysics of Quality philosophy that he later developed. And I do wonder if he might have similarly revised that sentiment if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that question. But I tend to think that Pirsig may have been the kind of person who updated his opinions when new information was available.
I’m also not certain whether Pirsig’s 1962 conception of “enlightenment” aligns with his perception of “enlightenment” in 1974 or 1990….nor for that matter with my understanding of “enlightenment” here in 2022. The same word may have been used to describe three slightly different things.
One thing that the word “enlightenment” often refers to a process where a person is freed -up from ignorance and misconception. The enlightened individual understands things as they really and truly are. Enlightenment is therefore a process by which one achieves that state of understanding. This version of the word “enlightenment” seems to track well with Pirsig’s 1962 sentence…pursuing excellence might well lead to an enlightened status relative that status one is pursuing excellence within. If motorcycle maintenance happened to be the field, then so be it…an enlightened motorcycle maintainer. Even if by “motorcycle maintenance” we are actually metaphorically saying “self maintenance.”
This initial definition of “enlightenment” may, however, be tracked via (at least) two different major philosophical paths – that being the Enlightenment of Western Philosophy and the enlightenment of Buddhism in Eastern Philosophy.
Baruch Spinoza: There’s no reason not to think of Spinoza when examining Pirsig
In the Western/Euro-American tradition, the Enlightenment is what I will call a humanist intellectual movement that is generally recognized as beginning in the 1600s and, arguably, continues on today. I have no difficulty suggesting that Robert Pirsig’s philosophy sits comfortably on a branch of the major route that is the Enlightenment. The humanist Enlightenment movement synthesizes a worldview that focuses on reason, science and a common humanity with goals of human understanding, freedom, and happiness. Robert Pirsig had certainly been exposed to both Western and Eastern philosophy by 1962 and would have been well aware of the Enlightenment. I doubt that Pirsig was specifically referencing the formally recognized enlightenment period of the 17th and 18th century. But it is not inconceivable that he may have been aligning with the ideals and goals iterated as a part of all that. So the pursuit of excellence could be argued to ideally end in human understanding, freedom and happiness.
Finally, along the Buddhist path, we find that enlightenment refers to a blessed status that is free from desire and suffering. Again, we know that Pirsig had been educated about Eastern concepts and would have been able to contemplate whether the pursuit of excellence had an end goal of being free from desire and suffering. On page 109 of On Quality, Pirsig states that Soto Zen Buddhist doctrine holds that “everyone is enlightened. What occurs at “enlightenment” is the falling away of the illusion that one is not enlightened. But the enlightenment has been there all along.” This is from a letter dated August 17, 1997. Putting this perspective into play in the earlier sentence, The ultimate goal in the pursuit of excellence is enlightenment….we might get something like “The ultimate goal in the pursuit of excellence is the falling away of the illusion that one is not enlightened.”…it seems not quite right. But that partly depends on what one might mean by the term “excellence”, doesn’t it?
However, a version that follows my ultimate goal in the pursuit of enlightenment is excellence would be The ultimate goal in the pursuit of falling away of the illusion that one is not enlightened is excellence.”…also seems to be a better presentation.
Of course, there is nothing preventing Pirsig from having been comfortable with all of the possible associations within the proposal that the ultimate goal in the pursuit of excellence is enlightenment. Even though the several notions that I’ve described are not exactly the same, they aren’t necessarily contradictory in nature. In fact, there is significant overlap despite the unique territory that each covers.
It seem to be an “and gate” situation. As, potentially, is the “pursuit of excellence” and “enlightenment”…each in the various possible meanings.
As a person moves toward expressing something they think/know/experience/comprehend/apprehend/understand, they are presented with the challenge to explore the words and word-orders that most suit their meaning. It is both a creative process and an exploratory process. It is a process which first brought Pirsig to explore “Quality” in his first book and then later to talk about Static Quality and Dynamic Quality, the established patterns (on the one hand) and chaotic cutting edge of reality (on the other).
Another Book to Consider Buying
Well, I will certainly be considering all of these terms and the relations and expect that they may form the basis of future Zensylvania territory. In the meantime…
In writing this essay, I realize that I have come dangerously-close to writing a book-review rather than my preferred intention to document only my own reactions to an original work. This is mostly due to the fact that On Quality: An Inquiry into Excellence is mostly NOT a new and original work.
Given what seems to have become for me a long-standing interest in Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values and Lila: An Inquiry into Morals, I was very eager to obtain a copy of the follow-on Inquiry into Excellence as I hoped to obtain a significant quantity of new material and previously un-revealed insights. Unfortunately, there’s a lot less new material than there is re-printed versions of information that is already available. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ANY new insights or collections of words that make the book worthwhile…it simply isn’t as robustly new as I would have preferred.
Still, I don’t regret the purchase. And I should send a significant thank-you to my daughter Chloe-Lynn for the fathers-day gift card which I used to expand my motorcycle-zen themed collection. And largely, that is the role that this Inquiry into Excellence plays for me today. It’s an artifact…and it is a kind of finger pointing to the moon.
The book was released for sale in April of 2022 and I received my first edition hard-copy several weeks ago. At 150-pages of relatively large-font print, I’ve only read through the book a couple of times so far but I intend to give it serious examination over the course of the summer.
Photographs
Throughout the book there are pictures of Robert Pirsig’s tools. According to the book’s preface, written by Robert Pirsig’s wife Wendy K. Pirsig, the photos were taken by David Lindberg – a nephew of Robert.
That brief paragraph offers the opportunity for observations about Pirsig’s writing and philosophy that I appreciate. First, consider the fact that the book was marketed as, at least in part, a collection of previously unpublished material by the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The book’s preface is credited to Wendy Pirsig, an individual with a direct family relationship to Robert, who died in 2017. Actually, what needs to be said is that Wendy is an individual with a kin relationship to Robert. The reason that this phrasing is important can be found in Chapter Five of ZAMM.
Clearly, David Lindberg also has a kin relationship with Robert Pirsig…and as an artist, his contribution is a collection of photographs of tools used by Pirsig. Tools serve an important function in the pages of ZAMM and also in our lives.
The handing-down of legacies (consider Footnotes to Being Water) has always been a massively important feature of individual and collective human endeavour. The handing down of tools – as artifacts and as useful means to achieve let’s say excellence…cannot be emphasized enough. Handing down a tool is:
handing down a culture;
handing down an artifact symbol of past survival and creativity;
handing down an artifact object to serve future survival and creativity;
Robert Pirsig’s tools are a symbol of his past and could be photographed as objects or picked-up and used for the practical purposes that Pirsig acquired and used them for during his life.
Finger Pointing to the Moon
The Inquiry into Excellence is a finger pointing to the moon as the majority of it’s work is as an exhibition to reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila. It is a hard-backed museum.
In the creation of On Quality, an artist has presented photographs of the tools which a person used in the living of their life. The creative act of photography was a dynamic quality act. The photographs are static quality products. Presumably those tools were objects which enabled Robert Pirsig to tune-up and maintain his Honda Super Hawk. Each tool was a kind of sacred object to those dynamic quality rituals he undertook. Now that Robert Pirsig no longer completes those tasks, they are artefacts of that past. They are patterns of static quality.
The photographs point to the dynamically-lived life of Robert Pirsig but they are a finger pointing to the moon. Of course all of these books are fingers pointing to the moon of Pirsig’s philosophy and way of understanding the living at the cutting edge of reality.
MOQ
Many people who choose to investigate On Quality will be interested, as I was, about any new text addressing the Metaphysics of Quality. I’m not going to outline every new or renewed thing I found in the book. If you’re interested, I hope that you’ll buy a copy and thereby contribute to the Pirsig family legacy.
However, there were several passages that engaged my attention that I want to feature in this essay. In a letter dated September 11, 1994, I found a passage which seems, I think to justify my observation that Pirsig’s philosophy was consistent with humanist enlightenment:
“Quality can be equated with God, but I don’t like to do so, “God” to most people is a set of static intellectual and social patterns. Only true religious mystics can correctly equate God with Dynamic Quality. In the West, particularly around universities, these people are quite rare. The others, who go around saying, “God wants this,” or “God will answer your prayers,” are, according to the Metaphysics of Qualty, engaging in a minor form of evil. Such statements are a lower form of evolution, intellectual patterns, attempting to contain a higher one….” (pg. 81)
Alfred North Whitehead
It’s quite a tough stance and frankly one that I think not only sets MOQ in alignment with Enlightenment ideals but is also consistent with notions that Alfred North Whitehead expressed in Process and Reality.
I am grateful that Wendy Pirsig and the editors of the book didn’t shy away from including this passage as it does positively establish a metaphysical position of the MOQ.
As a follow-on to that, Pirsig also suggests (c. 1995) that his MOQ solves a list of philosophical “problems”
The Metaphysics of Quality is valuable because it provides a central pivotal term that the Western, scientifically structured mind cannot dismiss. The second reason is for selection of Quality as a pivotal term is that is solve the “Two Worlds” problem of C.P. Snow, the division between the arts and sciences….“
The list goes on and I encourage you to obtain a copy of the book and examine the list. I am not certain of the extent to which I agree with Pirsig on his assessment. And that is not a coy way of saying that I disagree.
However, the work does rather go to Pirsig’s critics to do a good job of explaining how/why MOQ might (in good faith) be dismissed.
C.P. Snow
Dharma- Rta – Quality
Many critics of Pirsig’s metaphysics (as of any metaphysics whatsoever) may be expected to be come form those deeply-embedded in the physical sciences – biology, chemistry, physics and the like. On page 101, Pirsig is cited as writing that…”So far [readers seem] struck mute about the equivalence of the terms “Quality” and “dharma”, which are both derived from a common prehistoric root, “rta” meaning “the cosmic order of things.” The Buddhists have no trouble understanding that the dharma is the origin of things, but I think it’s going to take another century or two to convince Westerners that Quality is.”
It is very difficult, if not essentially impossible to approach a comment like that as anything other than a kind of soothsaying that can’t be evaluated. It will take another 150 years or so to know the extent to which Pirsig may be on to something. From my own outlook, I think that the field of biosemiotics seems to be most likely to reveal whatever truth there may be in Pirsig’s metaphysics and prediction.
Quality Undefined
Throughout ZAMM and much of Lila, Pirsig avoided providing a definition of “Quality”. On page 97 of On Quality, there is an excerpt from his 1974 lecture at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he said that, “One of the advantage of keeping Quality undefined – which is central to [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]…as long as you keep it undefined, then it becomes an instrument of change, and you can grow, because the things that you find Quality in are going to change as you grow.“
In this little book though, Pirsig’s use of the term Quality is equated, directly or indirectly with
God
the phoneme “rta” from the Proto-Indo-European language
the essence of experience
selection
meaning
dharma
the pure thing (Hindu traditions); the pure non-thing (Buddhist traditions)
“what holds together”
righteousness; rightness
the stable condition which gives man perfect satisfaction
duty toward self
virtue of the ancient Greeks
the Cosmic order of things
spirituality
Metaphysics of Quality is Metaphysics of Spirituality
the Tao
This is probably an incomplete list as Pirsig admitted to a preparedness to talk about Quality for hours on end without establishing a firm meaning.
On page 32 and running for about ten pages there is a delving of the phoneme “rta” as found in words like arete, art, right, rhetoric, arithmetic, aristocrat, virtue and more…this is from the proto-indo-European language. This is interesting as it establishes how words can be “cognate” with each other in descent from that common ancient language. In this case, ‘rta” or “rt” as a phoneme is seen to bear a fundamental meaning of rightness.
Clearly other language groups may have a different phoneme which would affirm something similar. Something about “rt” seemed to convey to a particular community of people that “rt” meant rightness at the most fundamental level. Just as “Ya” seems to indicate “yes/positive/affirmative” or “na” seems to indicate “no/negative/dis-affirmative” across many languages.
A term or word is only correct/useful insofar as it accurately and precisely identifies the object/phenomenon/event/idea that it is intended to identify. Pirsig’s preference to avoid defining “quality” was, as described a trick to maintain exploration and curiosity…but also as seen, it was placed (eventually) in the context of that single syllable meaning rightness.
But not as a judgement after the fact..rightness as a fundamental trait.
What Was I Looking For
When I purchased this little book, I was certainly looking for original material by Robert Pirsig that I hadn’t read before. Inevitably, that might have been some expansion of the work he’d begun in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila. But I found that I was also looking for further glimpses into what kind of a person Robert Pirsig may have been after having written these books. The largest clues come not from Robert Pirsig but from Wendy Pirsig. In the preface, she comments that a depression which followed the murder of Chris Pirsig, led to the delay in publishing of Lila. This indicates that Pirsig experienced a depression that lasted somewhere between 10 and 13 years. Perhaps longer.
She also wrote that Robert “contemplated other works, but they never materialized. His work in later years, involved maintenance of our home, the boat and the motorcycle he kept for the rest of his life.” This seems to be the boundaries of Robert Pirsig’s public persona. Boat. Home. Motorcycle. And, of course two books.
And that may be more than enough.
An Inquiry into Excellence is considered by Wendy to be a reminder of Pirsig’s “challenge to Western Philosophy and science to take on a study of Quality and stop thinking of it as vague and unworthy.“
This book focuses on the Philosophy and not on motorcycles or motorcycling. Neither does it focus on the literary side of ZAMM (and to a lesser extent, Lila). It may be inevitable that people will want to make the philosophy the focus as that did seem to be a central ambition of the book.
But as I’ve attempted to describe in my Footnotes essays, there is literary meat on the bones as well. The focus on the philosophy of the metaphysics can be seen as getting in the way of apprehension of the message. Stop looking at the finger and start looking at the moon.
Your experience of this moment right now is the cutting edge of reality. Just as Pirsig’s sentence “The ultimate goal in the pursuit of excellence is enlightenment. ” seems to me that it ought to be flipped to say “ultimate goal in the pursuit of enlightenment is excellence” consider what happens when you flip the question “What is the meaning of life?” to “Life is meaning.”
You don’t have a purpose. You are one of many purposes.
You may have noticed that this essay (or episode if you’re listening) is titled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Part Five. It’s part of an as-yet-indeterminate series of examinations of Robert Pirsig’s books. You may wish to go back to earlier parts of the series before taking this one in, but it isn’t obligatory in any way. You may also want to listen to take in the “On Footnotes” essay which is available on the website in print and is included in the first episode of this series. Just to get a sense of why I’ve titled so many essays in this way. But as I’ve indicated previously, it isn’t necessary to backtrack if you’re not inclined to.
Right now we’re going to take a look at Chapter Two of Pirsig’s book. At about nine pages, it’s a relatively brief chapter but it contains two of the books most memorable motorcycle-themed scenes and a number of interesting passages which reinforce Pirsig’s messages about self-reliance.
The chapter begins with a reminder that Pirsig and his companions have only just begun their motorcycle vacation. Similarly, the reader has only just begun exploration of Pirsig’s journey and philosophy as well. The first paragraph of the chapter says, “The road winds on and on….we stop for rests and lunch, exchange small talk and settle down to the long ride. The beginning fatigue of afternoon balances the excitement of the first day and we move steadily not fast, not slow.“
I interpret this as a kind of prescription by Pirsig for approaching both the reading of this book and for approaching life – remembering that the motorcycle journey is a metaphor for living life. It isn’t a terrible prescription to take breaks out from the business of life’s journey to stop for rest, meals and the small and inconsequential talk that doesn’t carry immediacy and import. To move steadily through life. neither fast nor slow is probably a good thing.
From the chapter sample that I opened this episode with, we can see that this thesis of steadily, neither fast nor slow is something Pirsig repeated near the end of the chapter. I appreciate how internally consistent Pirsig’s writing is. It isn’t merely repetition, it is reinforcement.
Typical of Pirsig, the next paragraph seems to continue about the motorcycle riding but actually introduces an ominous element…”Lately, there’s been a sense of something, as is we were being watched or followed…” If you haven’t read the book, my next comments may be something of a spoiler…but my presumption is that anyone following this series is either already familiar with the book or will appreciate that I’m trying to unpack Pirsig’s design as we go….this brief passage is a very early hint of a ghostly presence inside the narrator’s mind.
It’s a terrific bit of foreshadowing and reinforces one of my arguments that ZAMM may fairly be called a gothic story or ghost story. This is the introduction of a theme of ghosts and ghastly elements that will come up many times in the book.
In the third paragraph, Pirsig seems to break away again and takes time to talk about the flue flax blossoms in a nicely phrased, poetic line talking about the fields along the road, “Some of them are blue with flax blossoms moving in long waves like the surface of the ocean.” This mention of the ocean is also a bit of foreshadowing as Chris and the narrator do eventually arrive at the Pacific Ocean.
Photo Courtesy: Flickr
With the hint of ghostly presence and mention of the ocean, I am reminded of S.T. Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I don’t think this is a far stretch….Pirsig is clearly conjuring maritime imagery in the next paragraph describing the plains ” as if you were siailing out from a choppy coastal harbor, noticed that the waves had taken on a deep swell, and turned back to see that you were out of sight of land.”
The ominous tone that Pirsig introduced is very effectively reinforced and then she says “I have a feeling none of us fully understands what four days on this prairie in July will be like.”
It’s quite a threatening statement which he moderately softens with memories of other trips and with discussion of the group’s planning. But the suspense and hint of tortures and trials to come is absolutely there.
And here I want to mention that ZAMM often recalls to mind the first part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, the Inferno. It’s a kind of invocation, isn’t it? Four Days on the prairie in the July Heat..a road that winds on an on…just as Dante and Virgil wound their way into Hell’s circles?
Dante’s Inferno Circles of Hell
ZAMM is absolutely in line with epic poetry traditions and it should be reinforced that Pirsig was absolely able to bring this imagery in without feeling the need to explain that this is what he was doing. ZAMM is Pirsig’s Divine Comedy…It is a story of his mid-life’s journey.
The narrator says of the trip through hell that he felt Sylvia should go along to maintain harmony among the riders…”to arrive after days of hard travel across the prairies would be to see them in another way, as a promised land..”
There is a break in the chapter and then Pirsig takes time to talk about some storm clouds on the horizon (another foreshadowing)..air temperature and weather play an ongoing role throughout the book..the inteplay between hot and cool..physical discomfort. “on a cycle you’re in the scene, not just watching it, and storms are definitely a part of it.“
The narrator’s comments about Sylvia being along for the ride through a hellish prairie may be a reminder of Dante’s goal to be united with Beatrice. But clearly Pirsig is taking a different tack and while Sylvia may be a kind of analog of Beatrice, clearly they are not the same. Suffice it to say, it is valuable to ponder who the narrator’s companions in this epic journey are and what function they may serve in Pirsig’s design.
Next comes an is an interlude wherein the narrator provides a kind of amusing anecdote of a father-son trip from Minnesota to Canada. This is interesting to me as my family and I spent several years living in Thunder Bay Ontario, the area that is immediately north of Minnesota and could have been a kind of destination of the trip. I’m certainly very familiar with the geography. While this is personally interesting, I think the reference to Canada is another one of Pirsig’s reinforcements. In American literature and popular culture, Canada is often presented as a kind of wilderness garden of eden…a promised land. A serene place to escape to. Perhaps this observation of American culture of mine is oversimplified. Be that as it may, The accuracy of this picture of Canada is highly questionable.
The anecdote is filled with rain, mishaps and misery…ultimately leading to an end of the trip when the narrator failed to diagnose an empty fuel tank. The story fulfills a number of tasks. These are storms of Rime of the Ancient Mariner or the horrible stations along Dante’s path.
It shows the narrator, and Pirsig as someone not unlike everyone else. He’s had failures and times when he was unprepared for the storms of life. To the point of being on the side of the road without gas and without even knowing he didn’t have gas.
To one extent or another, we all start out as a younger version of ourselves and without all of the knowledge and preparation to deal with the storms we will have to face. Literal and metaphorical.
I’ve found myself on the side of the road in a vehicle with no gas on a couple of occasions…once in the middle of a cold winter day…I’ve also found occasions to be on the side of the road variously lacking oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid and engine coolant. My point is that life can be complicated and as it gets more complicated, there are more things that can shut you down. Whatever the cause, being shut down can bring about a deep and genuine dejection.
Being shut down with no clue why you’re shut down is particularly awful. But it is the helplessness, whether you know why you’re shut down or not, that takes the toll…and this is what Pirsig describes…his son’s tearful questions of why the fun is all over are your tears….why am I shut down? Why can’t things move ahead.?
“But there weren’t any mechanics. Just cutover pine trees and brush and rain.” This is the emotional wilderness. No help from specialists who know what to do. No shelter from the storm. Just storm.
Pirsig said the machine they were on (no brand mentioned) was a “six-and-one half horsepower cycle, way over-loaded with luggage and way underloaded with common sense”.
Clearly the motorcycle trip into Canada is a metaphorical depiction of progressing through life. And its also a call to self-reliance and education…we have to learn how to live…how to make it through the storms, how to equip ourselves and be prepared.
The story is summed up with “Now we are on a twenty-eight-horse machine and I take the maintenance of it very seriously.” As life’s stakes are greater, we owe it to ourselves to take things a bit more seriously.
Right now, as you are living your life – whether you’re, metaphorically speaking, operating an 8-and-a-half-horsepower machine, a 28 horsepower-power machine, or the latest 125-horsepower high tech delight, I wonder how seriously you have taken the maintenance of that machine. And if that machine is not a motorcycle at all, but is in fact your own self, what has been your attitude to these things?
I wonder how seriously I’ve taken these things myself. There seems to be something in the world that doesn’t give much encouragement to giving serious consideration to maintenance. It’s either assumed to be irrelevant or presumed to be taken-care-of without effort or forethought on our part. But I’m not sure trouble-free-motoring has been a real thing for anyone. Ever.
Still, we seem to live in a world and a society that is predisposed to using things up rather than engaging with them as things to be conserved. This seems to be a fundamental feature of contemporary attitudes. And it does seem to be a genuine problem.
In the chapter, suddenly John cuts in (the character from the first chapter who we know doesn’t even want to think about maintenance…John who is heading into Hell’s circles ignorant and unprepared…to tell the narrator that they’d ridden past a sign for their turnoff…telling the narrator (and us?) that it was as big as a barn door.
Well it is big as a barn door isn’t it? Are you prepared for life’s storms? Have you been taking things seriously enough? Will you be able to diagnose when you’re gas tank, radiator, oil pan, brake fluid or power-steering fluid reservoir – or the complicated contemporary-life-reservoirs for which they are metaphors are empty?
The narrator’s realization of his inattention to the road…having missed the big as a barn door sign while pursuing his memories of the past trip set the narrator to checking his engine temperature. The narrator is shaken out of focusing on the past and tries to put his attention back in the moment. The here and now.
I want to take a moment to recall Pirsig’s mention in chapter one that country road sign makers don’t tell you twice…one may assume that this is true when the sign is as big as a barn door.
Soon however, a second set of memories takes hold of the narrator’s attention and a new lesson is investigated. It’s another of the most memorable motorcycle-themed scenes. It pertains to anyone who has needed to deal with mechanics. Mechanics, of course are the specialists who fit the motorcycle metaphor… the narrator’s story ought to be applied to all of the various specialists and professionals upon whom we give our dependence.
And we do give our dependence don’t we? Lawyers, doctors, psychologists, bankers, financial planners, plumbers, university professors, politicians,….all the contemporary specialists who we allow to to fix and perhaps sometimes even design our problems for us. These specialists and the problems they correspond to often set us on particular paths, don’t they? And rather like Pirsig’s narrator, it isn’t unusual to find ourselves lost in the memories of yesterday or the dreams for tomorrow rather than focussing on the road we’re riding on right now.
Well…anyone who has dealt with any professional, particularly a professional who clearly does not seem to know what they are doing will share the narrator’s frustration and concern. It’s one of the most valuable scenes in the book.
It talks about care;
about professionalism;
about people being engaged in what they are doing;
about being competent.
Right now, we are living the times that Pirsig is talking about. Do we give over our lives, that is to say place ourselves in a position of dependence upon these incompetent, uninvolved chimpanzees when there are big as a barn door signs that they’ve simply wandered in and been handed a wrench? After all, it is your motorcycle going home with you after you’ve paid the fees.
Pirsig runs through the clues and decides it is the expressions, “Good-natured, friendly, easy-going – and uninvolved…..you had the feeling they had just wandered in there themselves and somebody had handed them a wrench. There was no identification with the job”
These are the big as a barn door cues he ought to have noticed.
Pirsig then explains he is a technical writer and found the spectator attitude in the manuals…the separation…” And it occurred to me there is no manual that deals with the real business of motorcycle maintenance, the most important aspect of all. Caring about what you are doing is considered either unimportant, or taken for granted.“
It bears repeating that the mechanics that Pirsig’s narrator recalled stand-in for all of the specialists who we give our dependence to. Lawyers, doctors, psychologists, social workers, politicians. I think you take my meaning.
You may have noticed that I have emphasized that I think it would be a mistake for me to claim to be an expert in anything at all. It isn’t that I necessarily view expertise as problematic…however, our relationships to experts seems, in my experience, to be very problematic indeed.
This caring about life, by ourselves about our own lives…or alternately by the specialists and professionals when we choose to be spectators rather than the primary agents of our lives, this caring is the central concern. And we need to approach this caring steadily, neither fast nor slow.
Spectator should remind you that the narrator mentioned that he felt someone was watching….a spectator. So the spectator theme arrives with two distinct, though not necessarily unrelated purposes….the ominous spectator that seems to be monitoring the narrator’s journey and being a spectator of one one’s own life. Naturally enough, in zen meditation there is a concept of observing your own thoughts.
I suddenly notice the land her has flattened into a Euclidian plan. …we have entered the Red River Valley….In the Zensylvania episode containing an incomplete examination of Fuzzy Logic, I spent some time connecting dots between Pirsig as a technical writer and the field of formal logic. Here is a big as a barn door sign that Pirsig’s writing is involved in logic and mathematics. Euclidian Plane1?
This just isn’t the kind of reference that one would normally associate with riding a motorcyle. This single sentence is, at least for me, validation of my argument that Pirsig has incorporated the language of mathematics and formal logic into the structure of Zen and the Art.
In mathematics, a plane is a flat, two-dimensional surface that extends indefinitely in all directions. The fact that the narrator describes the Red River Valley as a Euclidian Plane is very unusual and a very clear reference to Euclid, the ancient thinker and mathematician. We have to stop to think what Pirsig might be up to? It’s not an indiscrete reference. In fact it is big as a barn door. But its up to us to consider what that sign may be pointing at.
For me, I’m reminded of navigation and the first chapter of ZAMM when the narrator talks about dead reckoning. In the earlier Footnotes episodes, I’ve spoken about my opinion that the book that uses motorcycles as a metaphor for the self and a motorcycle journey as a metaphor for living life – and also that the idea of dead reckoning one’s way through life is quite an interesting way to think about how we navigate our way from one point to another of our human existence.
Earlier in this essay, we’ve seen how Pirsig continues to use these established themes to place the storms of life as a real presence in living a life. I’ve also said that Zen and the Art is Robert Pirsig’s analog to Dante Alighieri’s mid-life journey – the Divine Comedy. For Dante, his trip through the inferno was a series of descending circles. For Pirsig, the inferno seems to be a Euclidian plane – a flat, two-dimensional surface that extends unbroken in all directions. A featureless place devoid even of the sparse cover that a few cutover pine trees had offered during past trips. The fact that Pirsig used the language of mathematics to describe his inferno is not unimportant. It is, in fact, a part of Pirsig’s overall design. How indeed, does one navigate an unbroken, featureless wasteland which extends in all directions. Dead reckoning may well be a reasonable answer.
And with this very unusual and reference, the narrator – and of course Robert Pirsig, ends the rather ominous second Chapter of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Fuzzy Logic is a logical system which allows for degrees of truth. It allows for a world which is not either all on or all off. Fuzzy logic allows for the reality of a nearly infinite quantification of “some”. It is what allows us to ask, and answer, questions that begin with the words, “To what extent….”
Original Essay
See Also
References & Notes
External Links
Fuzzy Logic – A demonstration that the Buddha may reside in the circuits and gears of a transmission as readily as the top of a mountain or the petals of a flower…
Original Essay
In the summer of 2006, my wife and I purchased a brand new Mitsubishi Outlander SUV as our new family vehicle. That particular Mitsubishi Outlander was a first generation of the nameplate and it was built in Okazaki, Japan in July of 2005; but, it was sold to me about a year later in Thunder Bay, Ontario as a 2006 model. After fifteen years of owning, operating and maintaining this vehicle, I recently noticed, or perhaps simply recalled, that this little SUV uses something called “fuzzy logic” in the computer of its transmission. For some reason, that fact seemed to me to be an interesting and significant starting point for investigation. After all the term “fuzzy logic” seemed to be the kind of thing that someone might use to describe a decision-making process that they considered to be rather less than clear and pristine. And indeed, it occurs to me that life and reality are almost always rather less than clear and pristine. So I decided to delve the matter to learn more about what significance this “fuzzy logic” might have – to my car’s transmission and possibly also for me in my quest to live the kind of life I want to live and be the kind of person I want to be.
My Mitsubishi’s transmission is formally designated as INVECS-II, where INVECS is an acronym for Intelligent and Innovative Vehicle Electronic Control System. The roman numeral two following the acronym indicates that the transmission in my vehicle is actually the second generation (or iteration) of this declaredly intelligent and innovative system. Aside from setting the stage for a novel marketing literature tech-speak blurb, what the INVECS transmission does is continuously adapt the vehicle’s gear-shifting behaviour based on the vehicle driver’s style and the measurable road conditions. It is a dynamic rather than a static transmission system.
As may be predicted, this dynamic decision-making process reminds me of Robert Pirsig’s views about static and dynamic quality. These are central concepts to Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality….which is itself a kind of fuzzy (and by that I do mean, unclear) philosophy. At the moment, I’m not going to try to provide an explanation or analysis of Pirsig’s ideas on static and dynamic quality – but I think it is interesting that the fuzzy logic in my transmission may well provide insights into a Metaphysics of Quality (and vice versa).
For example, one of the most often referenced passages in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance says “The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a motorcycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha, which is to demean oneself.” This short passage demonstrates Pirsig’s extraordinarily consistent attention to the detail of his philosophy. And it seems like no small coincidence that the key feature here is a vehicle transmission.
For more than a hundred years, the internal combustion engine has been an intimate part of human societies and of global civilization. Whether one has any affection for these noisy, stinky, finicky, polluting monsters or not – the internal combustion engine has been a kind of partner and soul-mate to humanity during the twentieth century. The internal combustion engine (ICE) is so well beloved by people that automotive enthusiasts and automotive literature reach their most poetic, rhetorical and emotional heights when approaching the topic of vehicle engines. The devotion is very effectively religious in its enthusiasm (a term I apply in both its contemporary and its archaic sense0.
It might seem odd, then, that one of Zen and the Art’s most iconic passages refers to the gears of a motorcycle transmission rather than, for example, the valvetrain or carburetors of a motorcycle engine. Upon investigation, it becomes clear that the passage is written the way it is because it is consistent with Pirsig’s underlying philosophy. Simply stated, a motorcycle transmission is what allows progression of a static entity within the dynamic conditions of the real world. It is a real-time mechanical processor. Stated slightly differently, Pirsig clearly understood that an engine may well be the metaphorical heart of a vehicle – but the transmission is the brain. Actually using Pirsig’s terminology I’m going to suggest that the engine is the romantic mode of the motorcycle while the transmission is the classic mode.
How is it that a transmission is the brain of a vehicle?
An ICE works by burning fuel and oxygen and turning little explosions of energy into a rotating force…most ICE’s rotate from 800 rpm all the way up to 16,000 or more rpm’s. That is more than a vehicle’s wheels…so transmissions take the ICE’s rotation and converts that to RPM’s that make sense at the wheel. The earliest transmissions were manually-coordinated collections and quantities of gears which enabled a vehicle to translate engine power into faster and faster speeds. A person would monitor the real world conditions and preferences and change from one gear to another. The person made decisions that were translated into motion through the transmission. In effect a manually operated transmission accepts the inputs of power from the engine and decision from a human to deliver output to the vehicles drive wheel(s).
Many (certainly not all) people who ride motorcycles and cars enjoy being an active participant in the process….of knowing what is going on and choosing when and how gears are changed. Later, automatic transmissions were developed which eliminated the need for a person to decide, the transmission would automatically shift when particular conditions or states were reached. Getting back to the fuzziness of life and reality – being an active participant in the selection of gears means you choose the collection of gears intended to move you in your preferred direction.
This is, perhaps, one of the most profound and fundamental considerations that anyone can make about things. Because, almost certainly, whether you want to be active participant in decision-making or not – whether while operating a motorcycle or while managing other aspects of your life – this does not merely inform the kind of experience you may expect to have, it may also define the type of experience that you cannot have. For the most part, you really can’t coast along in a disengaged way with a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission and you can’t coast along in a life where you actively engage in your decisions. There is some effort involved.
It is something to think about. Personally, I earnestly recommend learning to operate a manual transmission (literally and figuratively).
Technological progress eventually resulted in automatic transmissions, which are a kind of static system wherein a narrow range of inputs produce set outputs. In an oversimplified way, achieving certain engine RPMs tells the transmission to shift to the next gear up (and vice versa). And then later, gears were eliminated completely in what is called a continuously variable transmission. This latter form of transmission not only removes the decision making, it removes even the pretense and underlying infrastructure that enabled individual decision making. There’s another profound observation about progress and modern society in that observation. If only one could tease out what that might be!
Regardless, in a traditional transmission, whether the gears are selected by a human being or by a computer, what we have is a system which responds to changing (dynamic) situations to select a preferred (static) pattern or gear to allow motion. An internal combustion engine only becomes an effective motor with the presence of a transmission.
How how does all that relate to fuzzy logic? The next bit starts get a bit more complicated…and much much fuzzier.
In my essay Footnotes to Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Part One, which is available in text on the Zensylvania website or as an audio podcast episode, I talked a bit about how that book’s title might be viewed as employing the language of logic. I argued that viewing the word “and” in the title Zen AND the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as signifying an “AND gate” from the language of formal logic can provide novel and valuable insights into Robert Pirsig’s philosophy and rhetorical approach. In other words, his story-telling technique.
An “AND gate” is a basic digital logic feature which describes a situation where a specific output is generated only when multiple specific inputs are provided. In other words, Pirsig’s title allows placement of “Zen” as one input and “the art of motorcycle maintenance” as a second input at the front end of a logic gate. The two are brought together for an output. In effect, they are synthesized.
As an aside, isn’t it interesting that a transmission serves as a kind of “AND gate” for the power produced by an engine and the decision making of an intelligent human or non-human decision-maker?
By viewing the book’s title, and the book itself, in this way might indicate that the output side of this “AND gate” view of Pirsig’s title may be the book’s subtitle “An Inquiry into Values” as the output side of the AND gate. Alternately, perhaps life itself is the other side.
As you may see, viewing the words, “Zen AND the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” via the language of mathematics and logic, is a playfully interesting and elegant demonstration of the book’s primary objective as presented in that subtitle. I want to keep that short phrase, “An Inquiry into Values”, in mind throughout this essay, as I think it may well be a defining detail or consideration not only for Pirsig’s book, but for other things as well.
A central theme of ZAMM , as well as Zen philosophy is a rejection of dualism. While I recognize that I am at risk of backing-up so far that we’ll all have forgotten that this was supposed to be an essay about fuzzy logic, it is a genuinely significant feature of my reflections and the position that I’m shuffling toward.
It is reasonable in Zen to argue that those two inputs that I mentioned, “Zen” and “The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, are not actually separate and distinct from each other. Viewing the title as an “AND gate”, as a point of synthesis makes this point explicitly. You just have to be familiar with the language and be open to reconsidering your perspective. I might also add that an “AND gate” may be construed as a process.
My non-expert depiction of an “AND gate” may be due some extra explanation and justification. And perhaps also some shared detail as to why I think that “fuzzy logic” is an interesting and potentially critical concept. Keep in mind as we proceed, that this is all in the spirit of Zensylvania’s non-expert status….and also, that what follows is a kind of the speculation of “fuzzy logic” as a concept to approach the integration of human experience, reality and decision-making while attempting to explain that speculation. I want to call it “living fuzzy”. As usual, yes we’re going to be a bit meta and a bit self-referential.
So let’s start with that “AND gate”. It comes to us from so-called Boolean Algebra. This is a form of algebra where the values of variables are so-called truth values of true and false. Well already we have a mass of terminology that threatens to shut many non-mathematicians and non-experts right down. But let’s have a look at what we have.
Algebra is a form, feature or branch of mathematics. It is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating those symbols. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to say that algebra is the syntax and grammar of the language that is mathematics.
Here in Zensylvania, we consider all language to be a form of metaphor. A situation where words, symbols, images and other tricks of language are used to describe the world. All of these tools are stand-in for things in the real even imaginary world. The word motorcycle is not a motorcycle. To say “Motorcycle Zen” is to say “Metaphor Zen.” Language is always a placeholder for some other thing. Often, but not always, a thing in the real world.
So for anyone who feels intimidated by algebra and mathematics…I really want to repeat that algebra is to math what grammar is to language. They are a way to explain the world. Algebra is what reveals the form, pattern and process of math. Math itself is a quantification of things. I want to suggest that mathematics is not the only language of quantification but I’m not entirely certain that is fully true. I’d need to use a kind of fuzzy logic to work that out. And I don’t want to get ahead of myself. At the least and for now, let me argue the more solid point that Boolean Algebra is not the only algebra.
Like any other language, mathematics is used to describe and explain things that we can observe in what we call the real world…and frankly, also in theoretic worlds. To say or write that Boolean algebra describes a world where the values of variable are so-called truth values of true and false is to translate algebra into a jargon-ridden version of the English language. But such is the delicate and imperfect art of translation….not to mention the delicate and imperfect task of explaining the world.
So what about that jargon?
Al-Kawarizmi
The word algebra comes from the Arabic word al-jabr, which is taken from the title of a 9th century book The Science of Restoring and Balancing by the Persian mathematician and astronomer al-Khwarizmi. Al-jabr meant the “reunion of broken bones”…or bone-setting. al-Khwarizmi used the term to refer to the operation of moving a term from one side of an equation to the other. As language is borrowed and shifted over time, our English-language version of the word “algebra” came from an Arabic term for a medical concept.
In effect the denotative meaning of the word “al-jabr”, which referred to a process of bringing together bones was al-Khwarizmi’s connotative metaphor for the process of bringing together mathematical symbols. Al–jabr became algebra. And algebra is the bones of mathematics. And you can see that the bones of mathematics is the structure, form or pattern of mathematics as I’ve already described.
Exploring the etymology of the word “algebra” is a wonderful example of how metaphor and language develop….but let’s get back to the Boolean algebra. As previously stated, Boolean algebra describes a world where the values of variable are so-called truth values of true and false.
From our example of the book title “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, the variables are “zen” on the one hand and “the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” on the other. In an algebraic sense, both of the values are assigned a truth value. Within Boolean alegebra, these variables are assigned truth values of either one or zero, where one is true and zero is false.
Boolean Algebra was introduced by the English mathematician George Boole in his first book The Mathematical Analysis of Logic in 1847 and set forth more fully in his An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, in1854. Charles Sanders Peirce, who coined the term “pragmatic philosophy” and founded the field, gave the title “A Boolean Algebra with One Constant” to the first chapter of his “The Simplest Mathematics” in 1880.
Charles Sanders Peirce
For those interested to follow the trail we’ve described, we can go from al-Khwarizmi to Zensylvania along the following path: from al-Khwarizmi to George Boole; from Boole to Charles Sanders Peirce. From Pierce to William James and then on to Alfred North Whitehead down to F.S.C. Northrop (who we’ve not yet spent much time on) and arriving at Robert Pirsig and thereby to yours-truly and the Zensylvania Podcast.
One of the most famous lines from Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance goes “The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha – which is to demean oneself.” It seems only fair to give Pirsig and his writing reasonable credit for being not only aware of the language of Boolean Algebra, but also educated about its uses and implications. In fact, it is reasonable to observe that Boolean algebra has been fundamental in the development of digital electronics of his day. Pirsig was, after all, a technical writer in the field at the time.
My suggestion that Pirsig referenced a Boolean “AND gate” is, as I hope that I’ve demonstrated, a reasoned and reasonable suggestion.
The subtitle of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is “An Inquiry into values”. In Boolean algebra, where variables are assigned truth values, usually denoted 1 and 0, true and false respectively. It seems to me that Pirsig would have been supremely aware of the consistency between his motor-cycle themed inquiry and Boolean Algebra concepts.
In Boolean algebra, an “AND gate” is a conjunction. The and of a set of operands is true if and only if all of its operands are true. All elements have to be present for something to be considered “true”. We’re not going to run that down much more than that right now because that is the central matter that Pirsig worked with and that we need to contrast with “fuzzy logic”.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and Intelligent Decision Maker (IDM).
So what is “fuzzy logic”? Contrast the picture of truth that Boolean algebra presents, that variables are assigned truth values of 1 or 0, true or not true with the situation where Fuzzy logic allows that the truth value of a variable may be any real number between 0 and 1. Think about that…a real number between zero and one. Degrees of quantification.
As a sidebar, isn’t it wonderful that mathematics is capable of employing both real and imaginary numbers? Thank you Rene Descartes.
With fuzzy logic, there is a logical system which allows for degrees of truth. It allows for a world which is not either all on or all off. Fuzzy logic allows for the reality of a nearly infinite quantification of “some”.
Alfred Tarski
The term fuzzy logic as the formal designation for a mathematical process was introduced with the 1965 proposal of fuzzy set theory by and Azerbaijani scientist named Lotfi Zadeh. The underlying concepts had been studied since the 1920s under the slightly different term infinite-valued logic by the Polish mathematicians Jan Lukasiewicz and Alfred Tarski. That term “infinite-valued logic” simply says that there are an infinite number of things that can influence an outcome. I highlight this as a way to emphasize that fuzzy-logic and infinite-valued logic are, before anything else, a rejection of either/or dualism. I’m sure there are experts in the field who may be motivated to offer some tidying up of the history and facts here…but I’m happy to keep it all a bit fuzzy.
Fuzzy logic derives its fuzziness from the fact that people make decisions based on imprecise and non-mathematical information. Mathematics is not the underlying language of human decisions making. At least, not in the way that most of us conceptualize mathematics. Fuzzy models or sets are a mathematical way to represent and systemically account for the vagueness that is inherent in, well, everything. These models have the capability of recognizing, representing, manipulating, interpreting, and utilizing vague, uncertain information. The kind of information that fills the reality of living.
Boolean Algebra, “AND gate” propositions, like other all-or-nothing propositions are convenient in their ability to cut through clutter with an absolute proposition. In some situations, a simple yes/no framework makes decision-making easy. Easier yes/no frameworks make, however, for un-subtle and often un-reflective decisions. One only needs to look at Canadian “first-past-the-post” electoral design to observe the limitations of a binary system applied to a world that is much more varied and complicated. Often in Canadian electoral results, the largest localized minority-share-of-the-vote political party wins, leaving the majority of citizens disappointed and disenfranchised.
But politics aside, consider the regular day-to-day decisions and adjustments we all have to make where proportions matter, where degrees of truth is a valid and useful concept, where there is more than just a go-no/go proposition. Do you to into the shower using ONLY hot water or only cold water? Or do you use a mix the two? A fuzzy model allows for a nearly infinite range of answers to the question of how much hot water to use. A fuzzy model includes a multiplicity of yes/no propositions in context of each other. That is how a fuzzy model provides a more accurate and appropriate picture of the world.
Let’s get back to my Mitsubishi’s transmission. On the website of the Society of Automotive Engineers, there is an abstract of an article written by Katsutoshi Usuki, Kenjiro Fujita and Katsuhiro Hatta that provides an insight into fuzzy logic that is as insightful and useful as it is dry and, a least superficially, uninspiring. What I am providing is a abridged version to focus on what strikes me as insightful to Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality and to this incomplete investigation of Living Fuzzy. Usuki, Fujita and Hatta wrote that Mitsubishi Motors developed the INVECS automatic transmissions with electronic controls which incorporated a shift-schedule control that allowed gear selection in response to driving condition and the driving habits of individual drivers. These transmissions also included a so-called “sporty mode” which allowed the driver to choose a dynamic drive feel as if operating a manual transmission….but without the clutch. In other words dynamically selecting gears in response to the conditions they experienced and based on their priorities.
For anybody who rides a manual transmission motorcycle or has driven a manual-transmission car, you will be familiar with the need for progressive braking and the need for a controlled and sensitive balance of clutch and throttle. Get it wrong and operation of the vehicle can be a frightening and violent situation. All kinds of bucking and gnashing can go on. You also know that driving conditions such as how wet or dry the road surface is, how fast you’re going, the RPMs of the engine, whether you’re entering a turn or in a straight…all of these affect how and how much clutch, brake and throttle may be used to keep things in control. It’s a dynamic situation. There are degrees of truth. Perhaps some brake but not all of the brake. Perhaps the the clutch needs to be let out a tad more quickly, but not too much more quickly.
The INVECS transmission in my SUV incorporated a shift-schedule control that allowed gear selection in response to driving condition and driving habits of individual drivers. These transmissions also included a so-called “sporty mode” which allowed the driver to choose a dynamic drive feel as if operating a manual transmission….but without the clutch. In effect, the intelligent transmission in my SUV acts as I would act when operating a manual transmission. It does this literally as it learns my driving preferences and it does this metaphorically as it changes the gears based on dynamic, real world variables that may call for some brake or a bit more sharpness in the release of the clutch.
How does the fuzzy logic do this…unlike Boolean algebra which uses truth value of zero or one, fuzzy logic allows for a wide range of inputs which can produce outputs that fall somewhere between zero and one. I want to say that it provides the possibility of degrees of truth which ranges from completely false to complete true but includes the possibility of concepts like somewhat true, partially false, largely true…and so on. It is a kind of spectrum of truth that is contingent upon the contexts and contingences within which it exists. Frankly and simply, it allows for the real world. Within fuzzy logic, truth is inherently not binary. It is not dualistic.
The INVECS transmission feels the road conditions as I might feel the road conditions…and to an extent, I as the vehicle operator are one of the conditions the transmission feels. Different drivers behave differently and the transmission allows for that variability…the distances between 0 and 1….the driver with a heavy foot and the driver who is more casual.
For those who may not relate to all of this motorcycle and transmission information as a meaningful metaphor, let me suggest that many, if not all, of the daily decisions of life are an individual’s reactions to the conditions of the metaphorical road- that-is-life and the person’s individual preferences at any given time. Sometimes we may want to go along quickly and efficiently. Sometimes we may want to proceed with low-speed caution…and sometimes we may get a bit of a thrill from spinning our wheels.
In his Metaphysics of Quality, Robert Pirsig described “dynamic quality” and “static quality”. Static quality is something that can be defined and, I might argue responds well to Boolean algebra. The “AND gate” applicability of a definable “ZEN” and a definable “Art of Motorcycle” works with static quality. Pirsig’s “dynamic quality”, his so-called cutting edge of reality does not. Dynamic quality works better with “fuzzy logic”.
Alfred North Whitehead on the other hand had a Philosophy of Organism which describes “actual occurrences” and “actual entities”. Dynamic Quality, this cutting edge of reality is the reality process which Whitehead depicts.
A more sales-oriented version of the Mitsubishi story….says the INVECS-II automatic transmission simultaneously provides driving pleasure and operational economy…1st gear is the low range to be used when power is required. 5th gear is the high range and provides optimum fuel economy and quietness of operation. The other gears allow vehicle operation in response to existing road conditions or driver preferences and style. When the INVECS-II is used in the automatic mode, all shifting decisions are made by the on-board computer. This permits safe and easy driving. The same computer exercises control over the engine during shifting to provide the highest possible shifting quality. For enhanced driving pleasure, the INVECS-II has a sports mode that allows the driver to take control of shifting decisions.”
The INVECS transmission sets out truth variables as ranging from on the one hand “when power is required” (first gear) and when the “optimum fuel economy and quietness” are preferred. It is a system which is based on efficiency use but also driving pleasure.
Which brings us back to Pirsig and an inquiry into values. Pleasure. What is considered good? Power or optimum fuel economy and quietness”. What is “good” is different, or dynamic, based upon the conditions. There is a range or degree of what is good between these two ends. It is an extremely improbable journey, if not impossible one where “power” is completely and continuously preferred over “optimum fuel economy and quietness” or vice versa.
I am also struck by the observation that enhanced driver pleasure is recognized by the engineers when they are actively engaged in the decision making process…this is a metaphor of life. We derive more pleasure in our life when we are actively involved in the decisions…even when the variables that may affect them are infinite in quantity and entirely unclear.
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The Apology of Socrates. How does a professed non-expert, non-academic person of the twenty-first century begin a meaningful inquiry into one of European philosophy’s most archetypal stories? It may be reasonable to assume that professional philosophers and academics have said or written all that can be, or at least needs to be, written about it.
And yet, I am motivated to examine the text and the subject matter from the perspective of my own particular perspectives. Perhaps it is the fact of being a non-expert, non-professional inquirer, that entitles me to the observations that follow. Well, I guess we shall see if I have some observations that are worth their own weight.
My copy was printed in 1980!
Before we get into the meat of this essay, I’ve posted a reading of Benjamin Jowett’s 1877 translation to the podcast. No doubt there are better and more professional dramatizations of the Apology available out there…but I hope that what I’ve put together is a modest credit to the podcast and worth a listen.
When I read translations of Plato, Epictetus or some other ancient work of literature (and indeed literary philosophy), I’m somewhat reluctant to spend much time worrying about whether the wording has been faithfully and accurately rendered. I want the text to be approachable and pleasant but I’m not looking for precision. I want the translator to get the situations and the context right more. If the picture is clear, I’m willing to forgive a certain loss of granularity. This is how I am looking at this work now. If I were attempting to work through a different kind of text, I might want far more granularity and be willing to let the overall clarity go. So we’re going to be looking at the overall situation and the rhetorical intents more than on how any single idea may have been phrased.
Let’s start with the basic question of what leads me to inspect Plato‘s The Apology Of Socrates at this time. Well first, I recently finished a reasonably detailed examination of the first Chapter of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and I need to take a break from that. It seemed like a good idea to get as far away from the twentieth, and indeed this twenty-first, century as I could while maintaining some connection or perspective on Pirsig’s work and insights that may be useful in living the kind of life I want to live. Well it seems at though I can reasonably go back about 2500 years or so to Socrates, Plato and the Sophists.
Image (and Featured Image) Courtesy of an image search via a search engine. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.
One of my favorite history of philosophy books is titled The Story of Philosophy and was published by Will Durant in 1926. The first time I read it, I had a soft-covered edition. Currently I have a 1953 hard-cover edition put out by Simon and Schuster. I read it from cover to cover every few years. Not only do I continue to appreciate Durant’s writing style, the book contains a diagram that I find almost endlessly compelling. It provides a schematic and timeline of the relationships between various philosophers:
I’m mentioning this because the chart provides a simplified – and perhaps oversimplified – diagram to trace relatively contemporary thinkers and their perspectives back through centuries of time and layers of thought to earlier manifestations or iterations of the same or substantially similar ideas.
There’s a similar function if you look into anyone who appears, for example on Wikipedia,…you can find not only depictions and explanations of their life and thoughts but also links to who they influenced and who influenced them. And eventually you can trace these things back to their earliest knowable influence. If this were archaeology, it is a dig into the relics of an ancient civilization. Each layer of detritus revealing what it can. If this were geology, its the laying-bare of layers of sentiment as though they were layers of sediment.
None of this is to suggest that ancient roots of an ideology convey or substantiate any kind of validity to any given perspective. I’m not suggesting that a thought communicated by a long-dead person is either more or less supportable because its been around for a long time. Quite the contrary, there’s every reason to think that centuries of investigation and knowledge have provided any given thinker with access to more information to reach better conclusions. However, it is valuable to see how generations of thought evolve over time as one thinker after another tests and pushes at ideas. It’s also useful in the case of this particular work to see how some very human situations don’t actually seem to have altered in their fundamental character – though the particularities of the times may have.
These charts are interesting to trace the history of ideas that influence your own thoughts and perspectives and help to inform you where you are. Taking a comment from my observations of Zen and the Art – Pirsig’s narrator used the metaphor of dead-reckoning as his primary method of navigation yet still carrying a compass in his pocket for times when it may be needed. We can be comfortable and even confident with our ability to navigate our lives based on our own understanding of our thoughts, ideas, emotions and the rest of it. But sometimes it is handy to have a compass to lend some independent perspective on how far we’ve come. We can look at the events and issues of The Apology of Socrates and judge where we are relative to these things and also against the contemporary events and circumstances.
If Durant’s chart were to be updated to include a new layer at the bottom, I might suggest that lines be drawn from Bergson to Alfred North Whitehead and FSC Northrop and thereby to Robert Pirsig. Another line might connect Russell and Whitehead. Perhaps the names of James and Dewey would be accompanied by Charles Sanders Peirce. Perhaps also the name Thoreau might be pencilled-in. And all of that says nothing of the Zen (or more broadly, Eastern) names and lines that would need to be drawn. Nor the more conspicuous literary figures either.
As I have explained in other articles, my interest in Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) has taken me down many different roads. Certainly ZAMM includes several direct and indirect references to Plato. But it also includes reference to, and draws significant inspiration from, Alfred North Whitehead – particularly his comment that all of [Western] philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. The chart in Durant’s book provides some perspective, on what Whitehead meant, how Pirsig’s philosophy may relate to other philosophies and why I think “footnotes” is such a relevant term for my explorations.
There are other works by Plato that are more directly connected-to, or aligned-with, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance than The Apology of Socrates. I’m thinking here of the Phaedrus dialogue and I expect to eventually complete an examination of Phaedrus, but The Apology of Socrates (along with Crito and Phaedo) seems to be Plato’s acknowledgment that all of Plato is a footnote to Socrates. For that reason, I’m going to start there and get to The Phaedrus later.
Further to this, the Apology of Socrates seems to be a text that is extremely relevant to contemporary events and society. My own recent review of the apology reminds me of certain evergreen concerns and situations that we encounter.
What is an Apology?
Currently, when we use the word “apology”, we usually refer to an expression of regret. Perhaps we have failed to fulfill an obligation or we have offended someone. As a Canadian, I’m very conscious of the stereotype that Canadians are often ready to be apologetic and it is in this sense of the word “apology” that the Canadian trope arises. Here in 2022, Canadians have plenty of cause to examine this stereotype and our national attitude toward many of the issues in this ancient story.
Given that Socrates was on trial for corrupting the youth and for not believing in the gods of his state, it would be reasonable, based on our contemporary understanding of the word, to assume that an apology by Socrates might be an expression of regret for his failings and/or offences. But it isn’t.
In the context of this text, the word apology uses an alternate meaning – which is a formal and reasoned argument, an explanation or defense of a theory or doctrine. While reading The Apology of Socrates, what we find is an address intended to defend Socrates against legal, and frankly – ideological, charges and accusations.
This is a significant difference in meaning, given that an expression of regret implies that an apology-offeror acknowledges, to one extent or another, not only the fact of a failing or an offence – but also some culpability (or blame) for that failing or offence.
An explanation or defense of a theory does not necessarily imply these things. The Apology of Socrates, in our more contemporary language might more insightfully titled The Justification of Socrates. And indeed, the secondary connotations of the word “justification” and it’s root, justice would give a title like that some added irony and punch.
Given that Socrates was on trial for corrupting the youth and for not believing the pervasive doctrine(s) of his day (i.e. not believing in the gods and ideologies of his fellow citizens), the distinction between the two potential meanings of apology is vital to a reading of the text and perhaps also to our experience of matters in our contemporary society which variously: require explanation ; require an expression of regret; mandate some form of culpability. It is a matter which Plato included in the final passages when he takes time to argue that he never intended any harm to his fellow citizens, though he was quite aware that he did offend him. We really should struggle with the relationship between intent and culpability.
Before we dig into that….
Who was Socrates?
I’m not going to offer any kind of historical perspective or thesis of who Socrates was within the context of Athenian society beyond what is available within the Apology. Not because it’s not an interesting subject, but because the Apology sets out the critical details that we need to know. I’m going to use contemporary language to drive home my points:
Socrates was the child of blue-collar parents but was not himself one of these;
Socrates was not a public official but had a history of military and public service;
Socrates was not a journalist nor any kind of paid writer;
Socrates was not a tenured professor; nor a professor emeritus;
by the time of Socrates’ death, the family wealth was either modest;
at the time of the Apology, Socrates was a septuagenarian
Based on these characteristics, it is clear, whether using ancient Athenian or modern standards, Socrates was not a member of the powerful circles of society but had nonetheless lived a reasonably comfortable life.
Socrates had influence and followers. People, particularly young people, listened to Socrates and enjoyed hearing him tear down the powerful who claimed to be wise. In essence, Socrates was a counter-authoritarian. That is not the terminology that Plato used to describe him, but that is what he was.
Socrates was not a professional comedian. He wasn’t a poet or satirist. But, people found entertainment in Socrates’ ability to pick apart the presumptions of those who would set themselves up as authorities. He was not merely a critic, in the contemporary sense because he didn’t set himself as an expert pointing out other people’s wrongs. He was a non-expert who recognized his own inexpert status without feeling that this non-expert status required that he concede authority to those who did perceive themselves as experts deserving of respect and deference.
Now I’ve mentioned several disparate things that may deserve to be tied-up together and I’m going to do that in a few moments, but before I dig into those problematic themes…I have a brief motorcycle-themed interlude that I’m calling….
Aprilia Pegaso – Socrates may have considered one in his younger days.
What Would Socrates Ride?
I’m going to allow myself a frivolous and frankly ridiculous line of speculation at this point. What Would Socrates Ride (WWSR)? Socrates didn’t leave Athens, except during his military service, so he wouldn’t have needed nor probably been interested in big touring bikes, adventure bikes or dirt-bikes. Although it is tempting to wonder if Socrates might have appreciated a side-car rig. So let’s set those aside. I think we can also discount supersports for similar reasons. I’m tempted to suggest that Socrates would have done well on an old Aermacchi or a Vespa125 Supersport (or even better a 250 GTV). But these don’t honestly sit well.
What actually comes to mind, in fact is some kind of road-owning trike. The kind of rig that Billy Connolly rode in his exploration of the United States: Billy Connolly’s Route 66. An unapologetically kicked-back chariot to brave political predators and take up residence in the Prytaneum.
What Would Socrates Ride?
Now that we have Socrates thundering along on a suitable ride…let’s get back to those problematic themes that I suggested needing tying-together. To recap, what we have in The Apology of Socrates is a play about the justification of a child of blue-collar society who happens also to be a non-professional critic of the powerful and the presumptive ideologies they profess. Socrates is a counter-authoritarian – one whose goal is not to oppose authority but instead to limit it’s ascent.
Well here in 2022, there may well be renewed reason to consider our attitudes toward those serious-minded individuals who do not hold themselves out as authoritative experts but feel there remains a vital need to limit the relentless ambition of the powerful. There may be plenty of reason to ask ourselves if Socrates position that it is better to know that you don’t know than to proclaim that you do know when in fact you don’t. I expect those are quite enough hints why examining The Apology of Socrates in 2022 is an important feature of Zensylvania,
Culpability
With that slight diversion satisfied, let’s get back to the matter of culpability.
Near the end of the Apology, Socrates states that he did not intentionally wrong anyone. That is not the same as saying he did not intend to offend anyone.
Socrates’ position seems to be that offending others, if it is the result of an attempt to do them good, is not a wrong. Seeking truth and exposing over-reaching or un-supported authoritarianism is not, in Socrates’ view – anything that carries culpability.
Socrates was trying to “right” others – even if it offended them. And this is an important point. Are we culpable for offence when it is not intended? Are we capable of offense when it is intended?
Are we culpable for our influence on others when we speak publicly? To what extent are we the stewards of our effect on others, whether those effects are intended or not? For Socrates it was a matter of death. Today it may be the matter of a person’s career and livelihood – that is to say the ritual/symbolic public death (the equivalent of banishment, the ancient origins of “cancel culture”) that is achieved via financial and social ruination.
What Was Socrates Accused-Of?
The trial of Socrates suggests that some citizens in his state felt that he was culpable for not believing in the gods of his state and for corrupting the youth. These are such distant accusations, that it is valuable to restate them in something more familiar and precise.
Not believing in the gods of his state. Buried within this accusation is an accusation of atheism. That is a red-herring which Socrates uncovers in the text. More accurately, Socrates is accused of not following the pervasive and authoritative doctrines(s). Implied by this accusation is a failure to submit to the public claims to authority and wisdom if he found them to be insufficient.
The accusation of “corrupting the youth” is a veiled objection to Socrates’ freedom of speech. The real suggestion is that Socrates has communicated things that some of his contemporaries do not approve and that this has a negative effect on the community, Particularly the youth.
But what Socrates was on trial for – the technical crimes he was charged-of are not fully and earnestly the reason Socrates was on trial. Early in the work he establishes that his accusers aren’t earnestly concerned with these matters. They have feigned a concern with these things in order to be able to attack Socrates.
What Was it that Led to Socrates Being on Trial
Socrates was on trial because he failed to
recognize;
defer to;
respect;
submit to;
acquiesce to;
obey
the claimed wisdom and authority of people who claimed to be wise and authoritative experts and leaders. More problematically, he openly challenged and exposed others to ridicule.
Socrates’ story is an ancient version of “I won’t behave as you want me to.”
I neither know nor think that I know… the vast majority of evidence of Socrates behaviour is from Plato and there’s no reason to believe that Plato was an impartial witness. It seems hardly likely that Socrates didn’t think that he knew…or he wouldn’t have developed a dialectic method and habit designed to tear into other peoples. ideas. The practical evidence is that he did think that he knew when someone else was wrong…there are no dialogues by Plato of the many time that Socrates had conversations with people who knew what they were talking about.
It is possible that Socrates wasn’t just disrespectful, but also discourteous….have a go at others, entertain the kids. But no hint that he was productive.
Socrates’ product o output is not characterized by Plato as friendly and persuasive mentorship. Socrates’ trade was derision and humiliation. Who were his friends…the rich kids. Oh great…..A kind of Falstaff…..no?
For those who study philosophy, Plato’s use of the gadfly metaphor is a favorite. The goading questioner.
Socrates’ claim to be a gadfly is compelling today because we can readily imagine an irritating biting, stinging insect. It was even more compelling in 399 BCE. Socrates’ gadfly is in fact a metaphor drawn from the Greek theology of his day – what most of us call Greek mythology today.
Aermacchi Chimera (A leading contender in the WWSR competition)
Bellerophon was one of Greek mythology’s favorite characters. He was a slayer of monsters. His greatest feat was killing the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s and a serpent’s tail. Bellerophon was the character that captured and rode Pegasus, the winged horse. His divine assistant was Athena, who provided a magic bridle. Bellerophon was such a big deal that he eventually got too big for his britches and decided to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus to be among the gods. The gods (i.e. that is to say, the authoritarians), didn’t appreciate it. Bellerophon was being arrogant. He presumed too much. So Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus which soon had Bellerophon falling off his winged horse and falling back to earth. Fellerophon, who had been blinded after falling into a thorn bush, lived out his life in misery, “devouring his own soul”, until he died.
Pegasus, by the way, completed the flight to Olympus where Zeus used him as a pack horse for his thunderbolts. So it didn’t end so well for the winged-horse either.
Nobody seems to be clear on what happened to the gadfly.
Bellerophon and Pegasus
Socrates claim to be a gadfly is a kind of culturally-appropriate and theologically-grounded explanation of his role within his society. In justice, he should not be considered guilty of standing outside the pervasive doctrine when he is able to place his behaviour within that doctrine. It was a clever ploy to escape the charge of rejecting his society’s gods. Even though it didn’t work.
It didn’t work because the trial was never about the gods – it was about not showing deference and respect to those who set themselves up as authorities.
Politicians , philosophers, poets, artisans
Socrates makes clear that he knew he was irritating to just about everyone he encountered. It didn’t seem to matter who you were: poet, artisan, politician – Socrates didn’t mind having a go at you. As a character in a story, someone like that is valuable rhetorical device for exposing information. In real life, however, a person like this can be a pain in the ass and unwelcome company. So, in the spirit of considering all sides of the story – it is worth a thought or two about Socrates as a prospective family member or neighbour.
Socrates is a fellow who seems to be living off some kind of inheritance or other laid-away wealth. There’s little or no evidence that he has any practical occupation that requires his attention. In the apology, he claims that trying to find someone wiser than himself has been a full-time occupation. He does seem to have spent a bit of time in public service and feels comfortable grilling whomever he pleases with the goal of showing them just how smart they aren’t. And he knew it was annoying.
So how do we feel about someone in this position. No real job, just goes around grilling everyone. Socrates was as comfortable wiggling out the pretentious wisdom of politicians, poets and average workers. Of the latter, he says, ..because they were good workmen, they thought that they knew all sorts of high matters. Socrates, or perhaps in this case, Plato, seems to be suggesting that good workmen ought not to be getting above their pay-grade with opinions about high matters. I’m not going to spend any time exploring how this comment relates to matters Plato delved more extensively in The Republic, but we can acknowledge that the connection is there. Noble lies and all the rest of it.
Sooner or later, someone who has nothing better to do than prove just how smart everyone else isn’t is going to find some trouble. The snidely good advice that you ought to do something to improve yourself rather than wasting your time being annoyed by someone who pointed out your deficiencies doesn’t is no real kind of obstacle to taking a metaphorical or literal poke at the self-righteous arse.
Well, some folks decided they’d had enough of Socrates. They availed themselves of the opportunity to take a poke. Socrates says that …a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying , he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong… and is Socrates right to make it his occupation to, usually rudely, point out others’ deficiecies? Well in contemporary society we have comedians and we generally appreciate their work unless j(or until) we’re the target of it.
There may be a truth that …if you kill me you will not find another like me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadly, given to the state by the god; and the state is like a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life…...but then again, how much wisdom does it take to be aware that the Socratic method doesn’t really work.
It’s arrogant and is more likely to lead to a bloody nose (literal or metaphorical) on the practitioner than a thankful embracing of self-improvement by the subject.
Refuses to Whimper and Snivel
Some of the most powerful and compelling lines in The Apology of Socrates is when the character declares that he is unwilling to cower, snivel and pander to evade punishment by the court. While there are two significant passages, the second is I think the better:
…I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting and saying and doing many things which….are unworthy of me…I would rather die having spoken after my manner than speak in your manner and live.
In a person’s life, it is probable that they will face moments when some person or persons in authority are standing before them in what can only be termed confrontational judgement. At those times, that authoritarian carries the courage of their power and position. For most of us, those situations will not be life and death matters, as thye were for Socrates. Perhaps more common scenarios might be an employer in some disciplinary moment, a police officer when handing out a ticket for some minor infraction, or a teacher, journalist or some other public official when dispensing some social expectation. Whichever it may be, who is not aware that some of these authority-dispensers expect sniveling compliance and not dignified rejection of such behaviour?
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
I cheated in that heading. It should say “Lila”, “Metaphysics of Quality” or even “Robert Pirsig” rather than Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. But ZAMM is the more familiar reference and I’ve used it for that reason and also because Zensylvania promises to spend time on motorcycle zen.
In Lila, Pirsig describes a community outlier in the character of the “Brujo”. This is a person who is both a member of the community and an outsider. A member of the community who is also a challenger to the established traditions and authorities of the community. The brujo may be sensitive and suited to a possible future of the community rather than its present. I suspect that Pirsig viewed himself as a “brujo”. Socrates is a kind of “brujo”.
Socrates describes having visited an oracle who set him on his journey to prove that he is not wisest man and in the end determines that the only wisdom is knowing that you don’t know much -if anything at all. In ZAMM, Pirsig’s oracle-visit moment occurs when a member of the faculty asks Pirsig if he will be teaching “quality’. Pirsig slams up against something that he’s supposed to be teaching but can’t. So Pirsig, if we’re to believe that his books are genuinely based on his life, found himself in a Socrates-like predicament. Even if Pirsig’s character’s felt themselves to be aligned with the Sophists rather than with the Academics.
It may surprise anyone who hasn’t read ZAMM that the book seems to spend far more time on questions of pedagogy and a questioning of academic authority and beaurocracy than it does on motorcycle maintenance.
Always when considering ZAMM, its essential to recall that it is a book about maintaining your self. The Apology of Socrates presents a kind of ultimate ideological dilemma for any idealist to consider. Socrates key declarations:
I’d rather speak in my own manner and die, than live and speak after yours;
An un-examined life is not worth living;
Authoritarians need their loyalty challengers – the alternative is worse;
There are plenty of ideologically-oriented people out there who will argue that a person must have a metaphorical hill they’re willing to die on.
The vast majority of ZAMM is the story of the Phaedrus character – a character who was so un-able to maintain himself that he was treated with electro-convulsive shock therapy and had his personality liquidated. The story is told by the un-named narrator who appears to have rather better at self-maintenance – to the extent that he managed, in the final pages of the book, to re-integrate the ghost of his earlier identity and to achieve a kind of reparation of the alienation from his son. Pirsig’s narrator doesn’t drink the hemlock. So true to his thesis that we don’t have to pick between the dualistic horns of bull-headed dilemma. Dying by our own word or living by someone else’s aren’t the only options. There may be choices other than kool-aid on the one hand and hemlock on the other.
A life may well be worth living regardless of the examination.
The Apology of Socrates remains an extraordinarily relevant text for anyone that may wish to examine the ideological disputes of their day. Indeed, it is an “evergreen” text that will remain a pervasive and persuasive text. Largely because it appeals to a kind of romantic idealism – it carries a certain bittersweet disappointment in “the times that we’re in”. Disappointment in the fact that these will always be the times that we’re in. There will always be cabals making exclusive and exclusionary claims to authority and wisdom; there will always be individuals who refuse to blindly and deferentially capitulate to the claimed authorities. Whether we call them gadflies or brujos hardly seems to matter.
A footnote is abrief reference, explanation, or comment which is usually placed below the text on a printed page or a subordinate part of an occurrence, work, or field of interest.
Original Essay
See Also
References & Notes
External Links
Signs of a passing.
Original Essay
Every now and then in Zensylvania, we get a bit meta and referential about things. You’ll notice that many of the essays and inquiries are titled as “Footnotes to”….something. Footnotes to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Footnotes to Niksen. Footnotes to Being Water. Etcetera. While all of this footnoting may seem a bit overdone and repetitive, it isn’t without much consideration and, I hope, good reason.
In philosophical, religious and broader academic studies, it is fairly common for works to be titled or subtitled as “inquiries”, “studies” or “meditations”. While these are all valuable terms within their academic traditions, in Zensylvania, we have some reluctance to imply that our non-expert and generalist musings are a part of any kind of expert studies. Neither are essays in Zensylvania necessarily intended to be criticisms, reviews or polemics. If you’re looking for expert opinions, they aren’t to be found here. What you’ll find here are footnotes.
So, what exactly is a “footnote” and why are there footnotes (dare I stay, footprints?) all over Zensylvania?
Merriam-Webster defines a footnote as… “a note of reference, explanation, or comment…usually placed below the text on a printed page“. A secondary definition says that a footnote is something “that is a relatively subordinate or minor part of an event, work, or fieldof interest.“
In Zensylvania, inquiries and contemplations about living a life are not considered to be the life itself. Whether we’re exploring zen, tai chi, motorcycle, literature or any other matter of life, these musings are really only footnotes and minor parts of the real thing. Life is the real thing.
Designating the collection of observations, musings and insights as footnotes was inspired by two disparate and, at least for me, inextricably linked areas of investigation. More particularly, I am citing specific comments by two very different thinkers from the early twentieth century. Alfred North Whitehead and (Homeless) Kodo Sawaki.
Alfred North Whitehead was an English mathematician and philosopher who co-authored Principia Mathematica with Bertrand Russell. While Whitehead’s name may not be overly familiar today, in 1929 Whitehead published one of the twentieth century’s most startling, sophisticated and complex works of original philosophy…Process and Reality.
In Process and Reality, Whitehead wrote that…”The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
Wow! What a line. For a philosopher, that was a collection of sharp words indeed. And, it was not Whitehead’s only insightful comment in the book.
The second inspiration for placing so much emphasis on footnoting comes from Japanese thinker, Kodo Sawaki.
(Homeless) Kodo Sawaki Roshi was one of Zen Buddhism’s most highly regarded contemporary(ish) teachers. Sawaki has been widely attributed with the comment that…”All of Buddhism is a footnote to zazen.” Like Whitehead…that wasn’t Sawaki’s only profoundly insightful comment.
I have no information about whether Whitehead and Sawaki were aware of each other’s work or perspectives. What strikes me is….the similarity between the two comments. It can’t be ignored.
Separated as they were by only 20-years in age, the two thinkers appear to me as if they were contemporaries. This perception is probably almost wholly incorrect. Whitehead worked as a philosopher and mathematician in England and Sawaki was a Zen Buddhist priest in Japan. But they both used that metaphor of a footnote to convey something about their work.
Their comments were directed to utterly different genres of thought and philosophical traditions. Still, it is entertaining to think that Sawaki and Whitehead might have appreciated each other’s outlook – if only they’d been aware of each other’s work. Indeed, based upon the modest exposure I’ve had to their respective writings, I expect they would have found agreement on several other matters as well.
The sameness of their comments is an elegant and profound underscoring of the similarities and differences between the Buddhist…and perhaps more broadly, Eastern…. philosophy and the European…and again, perhaps more broadly, Western… philosophy. The emphasis on action and practice in the east. The emphasis on theory and words in the west.
“Footnotes” seems to be the most apt explanation of what Zensylvania articles are all about. They are explanations and explorations. They are references. They are comments. They are subordinate parts to the subjects that they cover. They are documentary footprints to living a life.
For all of that, I hope that they are have some interest and value for visitors to Zensylvania.
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Zensylvania: It's a State of Mind 