PhD Thesis & MOQ Textbook

The first ever PhD concerning Pirsig's MOQ is available as a PDF file together with its appendix containing correspondence from Robert Pirsig that specifically relates to some of the philosophical issues it examines. This is the text which Paul Turner described as 'a fantastic piece of work'!

To purchase the PDF copy of the PhD by credit card or PayPal at £8 sterling (or the euro or US dollar equivalent) press the PayPal symbol below:

In addition to my actual thesis, the original MOQ Textbook is still for sale. Its remit is wider than the PhD and therefore tends to cover many issues related to the MOQ not explored elsewhere. However, as with the PhD, it was also read through by Robert Pirsig a number of times and commented on before being finalised. To purchase the PDF copy of the MOQ Textbook by credit card or PayPal at £6 sterling (or the euro or US dollar equivalent) press the PayPal symbol below:

An Introduction to Robert Pirsig’s
Metaphysics of Quality

At a 1998 presentation in London for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Professor Harry Kroto unexpectedly spent his time elucidating the merits of meccano instead of discussing his recent Nobel award winning discovery of Carbon 60. His argument being that students require tactile experience to know when to stop tightening a screw and computer use alone doesn’t teach this. When asked at the end of the lecture, whether he had read Robert Pirsig’s Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM), Kroto replied: ‘Yes, and that’s what it’s all about!’

Conversely, in a 1991 review for Pirsig’s second book Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (LILA), Dan Cryer of the New York Newsday remarked: ‘Like the village crank hanging out at the public library, the guy really believes he has discovered the secret of the universe’.

Which view is true?

I doubt Pirsig has discovered the secret of the universe... However, the writer of the so-called cult classic Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) has formulated a new metaphysics from the ground-up that may yet prove to be a useful one. This is the “Metaphysics of Quality” (MOQ).

How does the MOQ relate to ZMM?

Not too much, actually. ZMM is aimed towards the general reader of philosophy while the MOQ was not introduced until Pirsig’s second book LILA. The latter is more academic in tone. The MOQ stands alone without narrative support and should be taken as a metaphysics that stands or falls on its own merits. This website is largely concerned with the latter not with biographical gossip.

So ZMM is totally irrelevant to the MOQ?

No, that’s not quite accurate either. ZMM can be construed as Pirsig’s search for an understanding of what is meant by value (or what he terms “Quality”). This interest originated from his tenure as an English teacher at Montana State College in the late 1950s. At Montana, he was under legal contract to teach “quality” even though it was not defined by the college authorities. Consequently, with encouragement from a senior colleague, Pirsig became interested in finding an explicit definition or understanding of what Quality is.

In ZMM, therefore, the reader follows Pirsig’s search in achieving such an understanding. In LILA, this understanding is developed into principles from which a holistic paradigm termed the “Metaphysics of Quality” is deduced. His two works, therefore, fit together as one, though ZMM is more mystical and LILA more metaphysical.

So how does the MOQ relate to previous philosophy?

The MOQ can be seen as a (not the) completion of Nietzsche’s project concerning the trans-valuation of values i.e. a complete re-evaluation of western values on more humanistic grounds rather than theistic ones. There is no evidence that Nietzsche would have followed Pirsig’s particular path though the fact it took Pirsig about thirty years to write the MOQ does provide some explanation as to why Nietzsche failed to complete such a project himself.

Within the MOQ, Pirsig incorporates elements of William James’s pragmatism and radical empiricism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism, evolutionary theory and the work of F.S.C. Northrop (Sterling Professor Emeritus of Philosophy & Law at Yale University). Northrop was mainly concerned with reconciling the different values of the East and West in the interests of world peace. This reconciliation of Eastern and Western values is also a theme running through Pirsig’s two books.

So what do you think is original, if anything, in the MOQ?

Pirsig builds his metaphysical system on the postulation that everything is a type of value. In addition, the MOQ uses cosmological evolution as a basis for a metaphysical system. Pirsig does this in an attempt to remove the cultural subjectivity inherent in many social and intellectual values i.e. he is attempting to place morals on a more objective foundation.

Where did this idea of evolution as a basis in the MOQ come from?

Though it appears that cosmological evolution was first postulated in the 19th century, if not earlier, Pirsig’s explains his particular use of evolution thus:

“I didn’t get the idea that the MOQ is an evolutionary theory of value patterns from anybody. It just arrived Dynamically one day the way a good chess move arrives Dynamically. There was probably some stream of consciousness, a series of intellectual jigsaw puzzle pieces that didn’t fit anything and were immediately forgotten, when among them appeared this puzzle piece which fit everything. It seemed of higher quality than anything I had thought before on the subject and so became incorporated into the static pattern of the MOQ.” (Letter to Anthony McWatt, August 17th 1997.)

So is Pirsig’s philosophy “what it’s all about!” or is the MOQ the idea of just another “village crank hanging out at the public library” after all?

One of the purposes of this website is to assist the reader in making their own judgement concerning the value of Pirsig’s work. For you to do this, please refer to the menu on the left which details a number of papers. Many of these were written specifically for the July 2005 MOQ Conference though the oldest one (on pragmatism) dates back to 1994. In the meantime, I leave the last word with Pirsig himself:

“The hardest thing for me to deal with since the publication of Lila has been the complete disbelief of many that quality is or can be anything real… The solution to this cultural resistance to the MOQ may come from the Orient where quality is a central reality. But there the problem is reversed. A famous Japanese Zen Master [Dainin Kategiri Roshi] who read ZMM told me he thought it was a nice book but he didn’t see anything unusual in it. He was quite puzzled at its success. Another Japanese tourist to America said, ‘This book is not interesting to Japanese people because we already know all of this.’ Schopenhauer said that truth is that short interval between the time an idea is a heresy and the time it is a platitude, but the MOQ has managed to be both a heresy and a platitude simultaneously, depending on which culture you view it from.” (Letter to Anthony McWatt, December 24th 1995)

Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank Robert Pirsig for various comments with the content and contributing his annotations on Copleston's Idealism for this website, Wendy Pirsig for her patience and good humour with numerous administrative requests, Stephen Mills for suggesting and producing much of its basic layout, Dean Summers for his excellent paper on the pragmatists, Anabel Wesley-Walker for her thoughtful "stream of consciousness" and the contributors at the MOQ Conference (namely Robert Pirsig, Henry Gurr, Ian Glendinning, Gavin Gee-Clough, David Buchanan, Mark Maxwell and Mati Palm-Leis) for providing their permission to publish their papers here.

Please note that the copyright of these papers remains with the authors who need to be contacted directly for permission to use this material elsewhere.

Audio clip of Robert Pirsig discussing Dynamic Quality:
Copyright 1993 Robert Pirsig & The Association of Humanistic Psychology.

The complete discussion "The Metaphysics of Quality: A New Paradigm" between Robert Pirsig & Chip Baggett can be purchased at the following website:

www.conferencerecording.com