What is Quality
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a very interesting book.
A lot of the reader reviews I read on Amazon were negative about the book. More than one said "I was disappointed because the books isn't about Zen" or "it's not about motorcycles." The author does talk about motorcycle maintenance in the context of the ideas he's arguing for. Because this book is first and foremost about philosophy. The author examines reality as divided into the classic and the romantic; classic being logic, reason, and things proved by the scientific method, and romantic being emotion, art, feelings, etc. He observes that the two sides are at war with one another, each rejecting the other: this can be seen in intellectualism vs. romanticism, liberals vs. conservatives, technology vs. art. The narrator is searching for a happy medium, or a fusion of the two. This is why the book is called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, becuase Zen is romantic and Motorcycle Maintenance is classic and the title is a joining of the two.
The author asks his college class to define what "Quality" is. They have a hard time doing it. Is quality just based on anything you like, what's appealing to you? Or is it the result of specific logical characteristics of the object? Romantic vs. Classic? And why do different people have different interpretations of what quality is?
This book is extremely relevant to me right now. Because it comes at a time of great transition for me. Up until this point I've always been an extremely romantic person: artisitic, nostalgic, idealistic. But I find that I'm becoming more of a realistic person who looks for logic and reason. I find that I'm always looking for cause-and-effect in everything, of a logical sequence of events. I appreciate math and science a lot more these days.
This was going to be a much longer blog, but it looks like it's going to have to be continued later.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a very interesting book.
A lot of the reader reviews I read on Amazon were negative about the book. More than one said "I was disappointed because the books isn't about Zen" or "it's not about motorcycles." The author does talk about motorcycle maintenance in the context of the ideas he's arguing for. Because this book is first and foremost about philosophy. The author examines reality as divided into the classic and the romantic; classic being logic, reason, and things proved by the scientific method, and romantic being emotion, art, feelings, etc. He observes that the two sides are at war with one another, each rejecting the other: this can be seen in intellectualism vs. romanticism, liberals vs. conservatives, technology vs. art. The narrator is searching for a happy medium, or a fusion of the two. This is why the book is called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, becuase Zen is romantic and Motorcycle Maintenance is classic and the title is a joining of the two.
The author asks his college class to define what "Quality" is. They have a hard time doing it. Is quality just based on anything you like, what's appealing to you? Or is it the result of specific logical characteristics of the object? Romantic vs. Classic? And why do different people have different interpretations of what quality is?
This book is extremely relevant to me right now. Because it comes at a time of great transition for me. Up until this point I've always been an extremely romantic person: artisitic, nostalgic, idealistic. But I find that I'm becoming more of a realistic person who looks for logic and reason. I find that I'm always looking for cause-and-effect in everything, of a logical sequence of events. I appreciate math and science a lot more these days.
This was going to be a much longer blog, but it looks like it's going to have to be continued later.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home