Reflections of 

Robert M. Pirsig's

Metaphysics of Quality

The Metaphysics of Quality is a way of looking at reality that vastly simplifies understanding and perception. Although built on philosophy and observation throughout the ages, it is the brainchild of Robert M. Pirsig, brought to reality in his two books:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:
    An Inquiry into Values,
 

    and
Lila: An Inquiry into Morals . 
 

For an idea that is often called "simple" and "elegant", it is strangely difficult to explain in meaningful terms.  Pirsig himself resorted to the rhetoric of experience, taking his readers two wide-ranging, emotionally-charged journeys to bring them to a platform from which they can see clearly.

Pirsig's works have been the the focus of the discussion group, The Lila Squad, which has been in existence since 1997.  From the experience of the group, I have noticed that attempts to condense and pin down the Metaphysics of Quality into concise definition often result in meaningless triviality.  By contrast, the discussions that make up those attempts are rich and full of unexpected insight and value.

This is not a failure of the concepts of the Metaphysics of Quality.

Perhaps we could recognize that our language and social habits, being so thoroughly grounded in "dualism" are unable to deal with the simple, yet multi-layered structures of which we are a part.

We are like the proverbial "blind men" describing the elephant, each of which observes a different part and comes to a different conclusion.

It is too early to rely on any one description of the insight of Metaphysics of Quality.  How much richer the perceptions of all those "blind men" when they share each others' perceptions, and sometimes glimpse the central reality.

It may be that words are to the Metaphysics of Quality as the cube is to the tesseract.   (I hope to find a better spatial analogy, but in the sense of perceiving added dimensions from limited information, this one will do for now.)

For that reason, this site is called "Reflections and Prisms".  It is a search through many realms to find work of writers, artists, and others--people who have also seen what Pirsig described.  New links and pages will be added as soon as possible.

Reflections

•  The Tao of Physics--Fritjof Capra
• Speaker for the Dead--Orson Scott Card
• A Storm and Calm Simultaneously on the Maasai Mara-- Donald L. Feinberg
• Discourse on Metaphysics--Gottfried von Liebnitz
• Levels of Being--E. F. Schumacher
• Take this Fish and Look at It--Samuel H. Scudder
• Liberal Arts Learning--John Wallhausser

Prisms

• Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad
•  The Tao of Physics--Fritjof Capra

MoQ Concepts

• MoQ Primer  by Platt Holden
• Metaphysics of Quality: What is it? --  Starting from Pirsig, an attempt at building a conceptual model of MoQ interactions. Under Construction.

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