Quality and inspiration. A study of the diversification of rhetoric of quality in relation to different conceptual domains in Zen and the Art
Quality and inspiration. A study of the diversification of rhetoric of quality in relation to different conceptual domains in Zen and the Art

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the basic types of concepts of quality occurring in Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. These terms refer to the different conceptual domains, creating diversified types of rhetoric. All kinds of rhetoric refer to the discovery and awakening of individuality. The quality of education at university or on a motorbike must extend to all possible levels of the Great Chain of Being, it can not only be addressed with abstractedness. Conceptual diversification means diversifying rhetoric and style, which possibly corresponds to different levels of quality for Pirsig. In this sense, his proposals of a metaphysics of quality is part of a current dispute about the crisis within the humanities and the need to give it meaning, practicality and socially responsible utility. A metaphysics of quality uses the rhetoric of conceptual schemata which include: road, inclusion and container.

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