Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals

It took me a long time to read this book, and I m not sure how much these disparate readings affected my overall impression of the book Pirsig doesn t have a narrative structure, he wanders And these wanderings tend to circle back around and all tie in to a greater point or idea he s trying to get to the root of Leaving the book for days or weeks at a time makes it hard to follow that strand and keep a sense of how the ideas you re reading about tie into the overall purpose of the book Zen is on [...]

Tja was soll ich Euch erz hlen H te Dich vor Fortsetzungen, denn sie k nnten einfach nur das schale, aufgew rmte Gericht vom letzten Mal sein Genau das trifft auf dieses Buch zu, es hat sehr wenig mit Moral zu tun und nervt aus mehreren Gr nden massiv.1 Redundanz Der Autor Pirisg bzw sein Alter Ego Phaidros versteigt sich, anstatt ein neues Gedankengeb ude f r Moral zu entwickeln, noch immer in ewig denselben Qualit tsdefinitionen wie in Zen oder die Kunst ein Motorrad zu warten er f hrt sie nur [...]

It s been 21 years since I read this book, and much longer since I read its predecessor, ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE 1974 , Persig s only two books I kept seeing LILA on my bookshelf and decided it might be worth rereading, both for its sake and to put ZEN in perspective It was, on both counts I think LILA is every bit as interesting as ZEN and may be clearer in expressing its central concerns about what makes life good or worthwhile LILA has some obvious similarities with ZEN Both [...]

1 The story is compelling Post post midlife crisis man meets younger voluptuous woman They travel down the river together The convention is quite cheap But he never saves her or she him and neither victimizes the other either That s good It s not really sensual except for one scene And the self portrait of the narrator is absolutely unsparing as is his portrait of the girl She s not a waif or a femme fatale, but a complicated damaged person and him too 2 The philosophy is narratively compelling [...]

Robert Pirsig s previous book ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE is a profoundly influential book in my own life I have probably given copies of it as gifts to people than any other book except my own It is a powerful examination of the meaning of life in a pseudo novelistic framework that makes the philosophical explorations both palatable and understandable Pirsig s sequel, LILA, is an attempt to follow up and expand on the discoveries of the first book While it is not an unsuccessfu [...]

What is quality Is it a noun or a verb Why is quality so important These are deep questions that affect everyone Pirsig follows up his Zen book with a smoother, sophisticated, and clearer book that may not be as mystifying and haunting, but is certainly mature This book made me rethink myself, my relationships with everyone I know, my professional behavior, and much about my research By my limited understanding of Lila, I am a effective father, friend, son, brother, teacher, scientist, leader [...]

This was a fantastic read There were two mind blowing branches in this book The first centers around evolution and morality among the three basic forces biology, society, and intellectualism The second talks about morality and ties into quality in terms of metaphysics and having quality be a scientific metric to judge things This was a great book accessible than its predecessor to me and caused me to think quite a bit.

In societies that criminalize rather than attempt to understand mental illness, artists and philosophers may be the first to have the guts to discuss the topic publicly or sympathetically Such societies may first approach understanding mental illness through art rather than through education, medicine or philanthropy, let alone helpful treatment For women w mental illness, societal support toward a true understanding of mental health may be even slower coming than for men, if a male perspective [...]

This is the way it is Pirsig isn t the first to discuss this, nor is he alone in his understanding of the world experience Pirsig puts it down as a personal, real, actual exploration towards what is commonly and rather ambiguously referred to as The Truth He takes a very real experience of his as he is in reality, Pirsig, and sees Phaedrus think through many every day experiences to slowly arrive at divisions of Quality, finally cracking that nut which he left untouchable but no less real, in Ze [...]

I bought this book in Amsterdam, accidentally, for 0.5 It was lying on an old book shelf that stood right in the street I was walking past the book shelf after a meditation session and saw the word lila on the cover I was in the right mood, so purchased this book as a part of inspiration I haven t read Pirsig s first book, but had heard good opinions of it before It was quite interesting to read Lila for most part of the book It is a philosophical reflection rather than a novel per se The prota [...]

Lila An Inquiry into Morals I m not smart enough to review this book Robert Pirsig is a certified genius his I.Q at age 9 was 170 I read his first book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, back in the 1970s when it was released, and found that, much to my surprise, I enjoyed the philosophy presented in it as much as I enjoyed the story I d like to read it again His second book, Lila An Inquiry Into Morals, is a much difficult read.I didn t know about this book until around 2004 I was in [...]

There are some really interesting ideas in this book Here are my favorites in my own words mostly Darwin s Theory of Evolution fails to account for improvement the author posits that it s not about survival, it s about striving towards Quality There are 2 kinds of Quality Static and Dynamic Dynamic Quality allows for change that creates improvement Static Quality prevents backsliding Too much Static Quality leads to stagnation Too much Dynamic Quality leads to chaos Cells are only interested in [...]

Lila is Zen s sequel In Zen, a heavy philosophical work, Pirsig was frustrated with a Western philosophical paradigm that didn t match up with the way that Pirsig saw reality In Lila, Pirsig relays that his time in a mental institution was due to his struggle to see the world in his particular way His insanity was philosophical deviance, not social He, Phaedrus, was the sophist trying to see reality straight up, within a Western perspective that either engaged in mystery Plato or emphasized fact [...]

The basic question is Does Lila the book have quality Overall, the narrative of Phaedrus and Lila is far less engaging than the one between Phaedrus and his son in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ZAMM I did enjoy some of the passages on sailing and the scene where Phaedrus is confronted by a critic of ZAMM but the book lacked a cohesive framework The scene with Robert Redford was disappointing and the final conclusion in Manhattan is anti climatic and bland.I found that Pirsig s musing [...]

Quality can t be defined.This is what Robert Pirsig concludes in his first book, Zen And the Art of Motorcycle maintenance.Quality can t be defined because definitions are products of rigid, formal thinking and Quality is recognized by a non thinking process.In other words, Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions.In other, other words, Quality can t be defined because it precedes definition.Pirsig got fired from his job, lost his wife, and went clinic [...]

The novel espouses an ambitious goal to map out a Metaphysics of Quality MOQ While the reasons Pirsig gives for developing a MOQ leave readers wondering at the novel s purpose there is a compelling story at the heart of the book a reemergence of self imposed isolation that can only be addressed by revisiting Quality.Lila progresses as follows Robert Pirsig is divided between an intellect which isolates him from others and his desire for authentic connection He sets off on a journey with a compa [...]

For a book in which the author narrator refers to himself only as Phaedrus, this is a surprisingly enjoyable read at least for the first half.Pirsig s sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance An Inquiry Into Values covers many of the same core topics as his other work, including writing, wandering, value, and his metaphysics of Quality Lila further explores these concepts, providing additional clarity and addressing some apparent criticism Pirsig received in the years since his first [...]

I just re read this book as I have also read Pirsig s first book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance multiple times Pirsig writes on multiple levels He writes of his own personal odyssey into himself and his attempt to come to grips with his mind s unique way of viewing the world which has put him in the position of being viewed as not quite sane He attempts to help someone else Lila come to grips with her condition as part of this novel At the same time, he delves into the philosophical [...]

This book started out quite promisingly It had some really amazing, mind blowing parts But near the middle of the book there is a light drizzle and then a torrent of classism and a touch of veiled racism The ending is also rather disappointing The book hovers between epiphany and wrongheadedness It was to be fair, a very ambitious topic, constructing an entirely new metaphysics based on the value as an intuitive undefinable concept The sort of project where it is easy to lose your way The analys [...]

After a brilliant Zen and art of motorcycle maintenance , this sequel was just a good one This time the setting is a boat journey with a mysterious girl in it Apparently Chris has died and Phradous is all alone now The brilliant insight into the nature of Quality that he explained in Zen is explored further in this book He further divides the quality concepts into static dynamic and explores these further to form a comprehensive hierarchy The ideas and the hierarchy is solid enough and interesti [...]

Had higher expectations coming from zen and the art That book provided an ongoing textbook narrative of the authors metaphysics and review of philosophy But it explored real and tangible struggles esp relationship between father and son This book blathered on about philosophy to the point of exhaustion The book had little plot and really wasn t about Lila You never really go to know Lila at all The author wrote in the disembodied Phaedrus persona and seemed robotic than anything else He dealt v [...]

You have to muddle through the first few chapters as Pirsig sets up his assumptions and recounts his key findings from Zen and the Art, but what follows is a compelling read about a highly evolved metaphysical system one that bridges the gap between Eastern mysticism and Western empiricism or romanticism and classicism , and solves numerous problems inherent in the subject object metaphysic while sketching out an important framework for a new moral code In addition, the book contains a lot of in [...]

Pirsig used this book as a vehicle to carry his own personal philosophy This vehicle is in serious need of repair This vehicle is a rusted 1982 Honda Civic that needs new brake padsThe narrative in which the philosophy is suppose to be realized is hardly a narrative The minute the narrative starts to gain depth or breadth or meaning, the narrator divulges twenty pages of metaphysics although very interesting metaphysics , meanwhile the reader is left hanging The author clumsily navigates between [...]

This book was a disappointment for me Pirsig somehow is interested in the world of ideas in a way that I am not, and spent most of Lila further developing the stystematic philosophy that he had begun in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I was actually interested in Lila herself, the woman who forms a kind of backdrop for all these ideas, but she never really came into focus, and I didn t think the author ever took her that seriously I m interested in people, not ideas, but Pirsig seems t [...]

I found ZMM to be far superior to Lila, which was rather a letdown to me after waiting so many years for his next book I think he must have been one of those writers who had one great book inside him I mean his conclusion here, that all people have worth, is presented as some astonishing revelation, and of course it is It s just that it s a revelation that quite a few others have had before him.

I haven t read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but from what I understand, Pirsig spends the entire book arriving at the notion of Quality In Lila, he expands this into a metaphysical framework, which has since come to be called the Metaphysics of Quality moq It s of a philosophical treatise than a novel, and the MoQ is an interesting and appealing framework I may actually not get around to reading ZMM, but Lila stands well on its own.

Like Zen and the Art of MM, he investigates explores the giant philosophic questions life s questions within a perfectly written tale of human curiosity, isolation and connection and mostly, insanity all the stuff I LOVE

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The philsophical inconsistencies between this and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, made me want to write an argumentative letter to the author which I take as evidence that he had something of import to say.

While I admire anyone who attempts to create an entirely new metaphysics, the narcicism and sexism of this book was unbearable.