Term paper part 2

            We must live in par with the way we think in order to be successful, but we can never truly accomplish that if we keep stopping ourselves from thinking. Take space for example; we all see the universe as this black empty space that encompasses the earth as well as the other planets. It contains moons, stars, black holes, even the son. Space is not that difficult to describe once you have set a limit to it. What I mean by this is that we put walls up around our thinking; we stop our minds from developing because we try to be rational beings. Space is not definite, it is boundless; it is infinite. We are more than able to acknowledge this fact, but we deny ourselves the ability to actually picture this image in our heads. When we all try to imagine space for what it is, purposely or not, we eventually stop at a certain point, creating an impenetrable force. We are either too lazy to put in the work, or this irrational thought is too overwhelming and the only way to get some meaning out of it is by cutting it off and making the thought rational. We impede ourselves from fully accepting that space is limitless because at the end of day, we cannot.

            Quality is a commonly used word thrown around weightlessly in every day conversation without capturing its meaning. I myself never gave the word quality much thought until Pirsig discussed his interpretation of its significance. The dictionary definition for quality is the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind. In my eyes, quality is the degree of excellence given depending on the person and the task the object of quality is being used for. Everyone has different opinions on different things and therefore I believe that quality cannot have a universal definition, but each human creates their own personalized explanations that are somewhat similar. According to Pirsig, quality or value cannot be defined because it precedes any intellectual construction of it due to the reason that it exists as a perceptual experience before it is ever thought of descriptively. Pirsig states that quality is derived from past experiences that have shaped our likes and dislikes, but if quality cannot be defined, does it exist? How does something that cannot be described be real?  Quality cannoy be defined, only understood intellectually. It is this thought exactly that forced Phaedrus to reach insanity. His never ending attempt to define quality and make that thought rational forced him to go too far. Like everyone when referring to space, Phaedrus acknowledged that quality did not have an end, but unlike everyone, he did not stop trying to picture it.