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Pirsig, in the early years of his life, described as Phaedrus, reaches insanity due to the fact that he is unable to understand that the word quality cannot be defined and comprehended in a rational manner. Its significance and meaning is never ending and Phaedrus would not accept that. The more he tried to answer the question "What is quality?" the more questions he came up with because he kept searching for a logical answer. Eventually, the stress on his mind became too much to handle and he was admitted into a mental institution. Being unable to answer this question, Phaedrus became immensely depressed and underwent electroshock therapy. After he was cured, Pirsig now telling the story as himself is repeating the same type of behavior. He tries to finish what he started but was not succeeding. Before reaching a critical state and being declared insane once again, his son Chris, helped him realize that the question has no answer. Therefore, the same could be said for life itself, which cannot be understood through rational thinking either.

A "rational" mind is one that only participates in actions that are beneficial to it and yet, humans themselves seem to lack this trait. A zebra will not stand by a body of water intentionally if they knew that a hungry alligator was patiently waiting to pounce on their flesh. They stand by the water in order to drink it because they need it to stay alive, but humans on the other hand consciously put a cigarette into their mouths and with the upmost intention inhale tobacco smoke and tar into their lungs. Even with more than enough concrete evidence on how smoking can cause lung cancer and deteriorate one of the most important organs needed to live, people continue to put their life on the line, risking their health. It's true that the nicotine in cigarettes is addicting and some people may argue that they have tried to stop, but a person does not become addicted to something they have never done. In other words, why pick up that first cigarette knowing the harm it can cause? 

One of the reasons is because we can. People want to believe that they have a choice; they want to feel a sense of freedom. We have no control over outside forces and therefore compensate by having a say in what we do, in what affects us directly, even if it is threatening to our own health. Humans in general want to be able to say that they made a choice; that they decided to smoke whether they regret it later on or not because at that time they felt like they were in control. These decisions are made because people are afraid of losing the power they think they have over their own lives. While there is a psychological explanation for this, there is also an emotional one focusing on the senses. The rush obtained from tempting death, for a lack of a better expression, makes people feel alive. Smoking a cigarette can be compared to sky diving or speed racing; the adrenaline released from performing such actions although dangerous and possibly life threatening creates a type of high that temporarily clears the mind. For that amount of time, the worries of real life seem to disappear. If we behave irrationally, then how can we understand the life we live by thinking about it rationally?

            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 cannot 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.

In essence, Religion is something else that man will never stop trying to picture. Religion tends to be an enormous part of people’s lives. It was created in order to give hope to humanity, in order to try and instill an inner sense of goodness rather than evil, in order to set a way of life for someone.  We give God all the responsibilities that we cannot handle. We pray when there is nothing left for us to do, when what will happen next is out of our hands. Religion is seen by most as something completely normal and many would even state that they need religion, that it creates a base for who they are. Yet, religion itself is completely irrational and calls for irrational thoughts in order for one to truly believe. Therefore, when one is practicing their religion, they are partaking in illogical thoughts and behavior. Does it seem logical, that one all mighty immortal man who lives in the clouds created the entire universe? To some, the answer is yes, anything is possible. However, if one type religion is proven factual then another religion is disproved due to their conflicting views. All religions have similarities and are all stemmed from the same place. In addition, if Catholicism was confirmed to be true, then it would no longer be considered a religion; there is no longer any believing, there is now simply knowing.

Nevertheless, it cannot be verified as false either and that’s where the problem arises. There are no absolute truths in life. When dealing with this certain topic, there are two opposing viewpoints: Creationism, the belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation Vs Darwinism, the theory of the evolution of species by natural selection. The definition for creationism does not include any specific God or biblical account which. In a way, acts as its own rebuttal; Creationism is seen as God created everything, but there are different gods in every religion, so which God was it? Which religion was right? Darwinism has its faults as well. Is it more logical that we came from two people, Adam and Eve, whom decided to pop out of thin air or that we all originated from a single celled bacterium smaller than a millimeter in length and width? Neither can be established nor falsified.  This argument has been going on for years and will continue to be a topic of discussion for centuries to come. There are illogical questions in life. If one tries to create a rational explanation for religion and how the world came to be, if one continues to try and find an answer, then they will drive themselves insane exactly like Phaedrus.

Unlike his former self, Pirsig did not reach insanity as Phaedrus did. Pirsig’s love towards his son, Chris is what stopped him from going on a downward spiral. Love is a powerful thing that could make people do things they never thought they would. Love could be described as a rational act because it causes chemical reactions, releases dopamine and makes the body react as nature intended it to, yet, are actions caused by love rational? In essence, human nature is said to be selfish, focusing on only what will give them personal benefit, but when love is brought into the equation, partners usually, or are at least supposed to put each other’s happiness before theirs. Although that does not always happen, when it does, humans are contradicting supposed human nature with a rational bodily act called love. Love is considered and seen by many as a confusing topic that will never be understood and there is reasoning behind it; love and what it entails is not rational. Hence, using normal thoughts to figure out what love is and what it means will fail to make sense and evoke further thoughts.

How is the world we live in supposed to be understood if there is not a logical explanation to every scenario? As with religion, a continuous search for how life works through logical reasons will go on forever. People have never stopped trying to find why things happen, how life works or what the meaning of life is. This is due to the fact that there is no one or concrete response to answer any of these questions without accepting that life is not normal, that it is not rational and therefore any attempt at using rational thinking will be utterly unsuccessful. But how do we know what is rational? When we consider something to be unusual or when something unexpected happens that could have never been predicted due to weird extraneous variables, then we see it as irrational and that scares many people. People find comfort in the norm, in the normal aspects of life even though most of life is not rational. But if the rationale is something humans created in order to feel safe and have a structure on how to live, then does it exist? Then, if life, like quality, has no exact or real definition, does life exist? In other words, if by every moment that passes we are closer to death, are we living or are we dying? Nothing truly makes sense and the more you try to make life reasonable and understand, the faster the possibility of becoming insane arises. 

Works Cited:
Pirsig, Robert M.. Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: an inquiry into values,. New York: Morrow, 1974. Print.

Word Count: 1921