@kangaroo5383
I wonder if you have read Robert #Pirsig, *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,* which takes some inspiration from the story of Poincaré's getting on the bus

@bodhidave @EgyptianAphorist @mcmullin @clarablackink @histodons
Mathematics and #art are human activities, and in a #mathematics paper
(on #conic sections, the #conics, in particular, and described in the
linked blog post), I was pleased to have reason to quote what
Robert Pirsig said about teaching #writing. I commented,

> What #Pirsig wanted, as an English teacher, was for students to learn
> to write what *they* wanted. In the end, this would be what everybody
> else wanted, which was *quality.*

But there's a difference:

> In mathematics, an essential part of #quality is *truth,* or
> *correctness* if you prefer. We take this to be universal.

Not everybody may agree on what is good art, but I think they should
agree on what is correct mathematics.

https://polytropy.com/2020/08/05/an-exercise-in-analytic-geometry/

@mariapopova

I like McPhee's question,

> How could anyone ever know that something is good before it exists?

The #Bible suggests that even God cannot know.

I blogged about this last October, looking also at #RGCollingwood and
Robert #Pirsig on the subject of checking one's work

https://polytropy.com/2022/10/31/it-was-good/

"You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt."
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
#philosophy #pirsig #zen #dogma

@Aidas

I recommend it, but probably best to start with 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' where #pirsig first introduced his Metaphysics of Quality.

I've not read much Thomas Aquinas, except for snippets on the web. Perhaps I should?

Forgive me if I indulge in a daily Robert M #Pirsig quote.

“It’s all taking the customer’s money and giving him exactly what he wants and then leaving him poorer than when he started.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals

“What’s new?” is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question “What is best?,” a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream.”

― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

#pirsig

Another hashtag I forgot to include in my interests, though how best to name it ?
#pirsig ?
#ZATAMM ?

Anyway, an interesting article from the New Yorker:
Returning, Again, to Robert M. Pirsig
All roads lead to “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/returning-again-to-robert-m-pirsig