Individual Quality example essay topic

No, he did nothing for Quality or the Tao. What benefited was reason. He showed a way by which reason may be expanded to include elements that have previously been in assimilable and thus have been considered irrational. I think it is the overwhelming presence of these irrational elements crying for assimilation that creates the present bad Quality, the chaotic, disconnected spirit of the twentieth century.

I want to go at these now in as orderly a manner as possible. The first step down from Phaedrus statement that Quality is the Buddha is a statement that such an assertion, if true, provides a rational basis for a unification of three areas of human experience which are not unified. These three areas are Religion, Art and Science. If it can be shown that quality is the central term of all three, and that this quality is not of many kinds but of one kind only, then it follows that the three not unified areas have a basis for intro conversion. The relationship of quality to the area of art has been shown rather exhaustively through a pursuit of Phaedrus understanding of Quality in the Art of rhetoric. Actually, art is high-quality endeavor.

In the area of Religion, the rational relationship of quality to the Godhead needs to be more thoroughly established. For the time being one can meditate on the fact that the old English roots for the Buddha and Quality, God and good, appear to be identical. It is in the area of Science that I want to focus attention in the immediate future, for this is the area that most badly needs the relationship established. The dictum that Science and its offspring, technology, are value free, that is, quality free, has to work. It is that value freedom that underlines the death-force effect to which attention was brought early in the Chautauqua.

Pirsig book explores the ways in which eastern philosophies can help western thinkers move toward quality. The book covers a lot of ground, very quickly and is not a philosophical textbook. If a person does not know much about philosophy, this book will not change that fact, but it will make a person to question a lot of the assumptions he or she has made. Pirsig asks us the question whether science and logic can really bring us closer to the Truth. However, we should not forget that quality is indefinable. It comes before thought, and before actions.

Any attempt at describing it is useless, because as soon as a person attempts to categorize it, he or she is only talking about one aspect of it. What Pirsig does in this book, is an attempt to show us ways that we can use quality in our lives. He calls his main character Phaedrus, which comes from Plates dialogue by the same name. Pirsig states, My personal feeling is that this is how any further improvement of the world will be done: by individuals making Quality decisions and that's all.

God, I don't want to have any more enthusiasm for big programs full of social planning for big masses of people that leave individual Quality out. These can be left alone for a while. Theres a place for them but theyve got to be built on a foundation of Quality within the individuals involved. Weve had that individual Quality in the past, exploited it as a natural resource without knowing it, and now its just about depleted. Everyones just about out of gumption. And I think its about time to return to the rebuilding of this American resource individual worth.

(Gurteen) If you feel that the world is becoming more and more empty and hollow, and think that part of your basic humanity has been stolen by alarm clocks, concrete, automobiles, and computers, The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance may help you in finding the quality that resides within technology, yet is so often ignored by those who wield technology like a biological weapon. If you are searching for answers, this book will give you a few more questions, and help you realize that life is about the questions, not the answers!

Bibliography

Pirsig, Robert M. The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. New York: Bantam, 1981 Co user, G.
Thomas. The Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as Prophetic Autobiography. Rendezvous, 1977 Gurteen: On Personal Quality by Robert M.