Robbins's essay has been a source of creative inspiration over the years since I first read it in The Secular Heretic, and an invaluable resource in helping me begin to understand Bergson's concept of time. I haven't come across any ideas about the nature of life as coherent and inspiring as that of Bergson. There's something profoundly life-affirming in the idea of "primary memory," that the whole of the past, present, and future progresses as one continuous, "indivisible, melodic transformation"! It seems to me that underlying so much of the sense of meaninglessness and despair engendered by the classic metaphysic is its suicidal idea that life is nothing more than a kind of cinematic sequence of "instants that instantly fall into the non-existence of the past as the next instant arrives." It's a depressing vision of reality. It also makes no sense. If I believed in it, I think I'd go insane and do everything I could to escape reality. The classic metaphysic goes a long way to illustrating why most of us prefer to live in the matrix, so to speak.
Thank you RDM! Unfortunately, Stephen won't see this unless I contact him. When I moved the Secular Heretic website to Substack, I tried to move comments, but in the end that process didn't work. A shame, as you probably would have enjoyed seeing those. Same for the Electric Universe piece that had a heavy comments section. I find Robbins's ideas on the hard problem to be convincing. He's also posted some interesting pieces critical of Einstein. Whatever one makes of his ideas on the various subjects he tackles, he is most definitely a wonderful and inspiring thinker.
Robbins's essay has been a source of creative inspiration over the years since I first read it in The Secular Heretic, and an invaluable resource in helping me begin to understand Bergson's concept of time. I haven't come across any ideas about the nature of life as coherent and inspiring as that of Bergson. There's something profoundly life-affirming in the idea of "primary memory," that the whole of the past, present, and future progresses as one continuous, "indivisible, melodic transformation"! It seems to me that underlying so much of the sense of meaninglessness and despair engendered by the classic metaphysic is its suicidal idea that life is nothing more than a kind of cinematic sequence of "instants that instantly fall into the non-existence of the past as the next instant arrives." It's a depressing vision of reality. It also makes no sense. If I believed in it, I think I'd go insane and do everything I could to escape reality. The classic metaphysic goes a long way to illustrating why most of us prefer to live in the matrix, so to speak.
Oh my God, brilliant…
Sorry for emotional outburst, but I never expected to read something that properly extended Pirsig both in spirit and content…. holy hell
And along the way, you and Asa Boxer have created a Bergson convert.
Thank you RDM! Unfortunately, Stephen won't see this unless I contact him. When I moved the Secular Heretic website to Substack, I tried to move comments, but in the end that process didn't work. A shame, as you probably would have enjoyed seeing those. Same for the Electric Universe piece that had a heavy comments section. I find Robbins's ideas on the hard problem to be convincing. He's also posted some interesting pieces critical of Einstein. Whatever one makes of his ideas on the various subjects he tackles, he is most definitely a wonderful and inspiring thinker.