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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Blomme, Mark E. |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE: An Inquiry into Values, Robert M. Pirsig, HarperCollins Publishers, New York 1974, reprint 2005, 430 pages, $13.95. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) metaphorically outlines the intellectual journey that the War Machine as an institution needs to take in order to reform itself. The perfect place for this reform to begin is in the military's first operational war fighting school, the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS). Students at SAMS are reading ZMM in the true spirit of the school, the spirit of intellectual reform. Brigadier General Huba Wass de Czege started SAMS in the early 1980s when he realized that the Army as an institution could not reform itself from the inside, from the topdown. SAMS students learn to think for themselves, freeing themselves from the doctrinal Procrustean bed of black-and-white thinking. ZMM can help us challenge our unconscious schemata of categorical thinking that force us into seeing the world in functional hierarchies made up of block-and-line charts and examine our unconscious conflation of what's in our minds with what's in the world--the reification of our mental models, theories, and myths. ZMM is a timeless classic accessible to anyone courageous enough to challenge his or her own convictions. The understanding gained is not about good old-fashioned heroic, warrior leadership; it is not about decision-making; it is not about problem-solving. It is about critical reasoning. ZMM will not leave the reflective person unaffected. Introduction by LTC Timothy Challans, U.S. Army Retired, Ph.D. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a bizarre title for a serious piece of literature, yet the title could not be more fitting. The philosophical quandaries in which the narrator engages proffer the reader an opportunity to expand upon traditionally held Western thoughts and values. The storyline is not typical of military readings, but unfortunately neither is the subject of critical thinking, which this book is all about. The title conjures images of Buddhist monks in secluded meditation, but also draws upon imagery of motorcycle maintenance to attract an audience with a proclivity for Western thinking into "an inquiry into values" and serious dialogue on logical reasoning and intuitive judgments about "quality." While taking a cursory, but grounding, tour through 2,500 years of philosophical evolution, the book challenges the reader to consider the value of self-reflection in order to increase the reader's capacity for critical thinking. It is a philosophically engaging modern epic well worth reading. It is not a manual for fixing motorcycles, nor will it have you sitting cross-legged in trancelike meditation, but it will make you scratch your head, challenge the way you think, and make you rethink the way you live. Robert Pirsig uses a father-son motorcycle trip across the northern region and west coast of the U.S. as the backdrop upon which he paints a candid picture of a well-educated, middle-aged man--presumably the author himself--struggling with his sanity. The narrator, previously subjected to electroshock therapy that left mental voids, is physically retracing his past and exploring the philosophical debates and discovery that he was previously obsessed with and which left him committed to an asylum. It is a captivating story filled with imagery to which the reader can easily relate, but the true power of the work is found in Pirsig's ability to use the story to pull the reader through a lesson on early Western philosophy while comparing it to aspects of Eastern philosophy. The narrator navigates through early Greek philosophical developments while drifting through periods of deep internal reflection, contemplating the meaning of artifacts that remain and memories that surface from his life before therapy. … |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Robert%20Pirsig%20-%20Zen,%20And%20The%20Art%20of%20Motorcycle%20Maintainance.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.readinggroupguides.com/printpdf/reviews/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-an-inquiry-into-values |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
