Ask HN: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

1 points by mmccomb 14 years ago | 4 comments

After an initial (and failed) attempt at reading ZTMM I've spent the morning reading more about Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality and Philosophy in general.

I will freely admit to being somewhat ignorant in terms of philosophy but would love to broaden my horizons and have been told that ZAMM is a good introduction.

What I would like to know is are they any good accompaniments to the book or other writings that would ease my journey into the world of philosophy?

hugh3 14 years ago |

ZAMM is a terrible introduction to philosophy. Fun story, bullshit philosophy. I'm not actually sure whether the author believes this "metaphysics of quality" stuff or whether he's just putting it into the mouth of the character.

If you want to learn about philosophy, start with Russell:

http://www.amazon.com/History-Western-Philosophy-Bertrand-Ru...

mmccomb 14 years ago | |

Would you recommend avoiding ZAMM altogether for now?

Thanks for the link, it'd be rude not to buy a used copy at that price!

hugh3 14 years ago | | |

Read ZAMM if you like, but just treat it as a novel rather than as a serious work of philosophy.

dmfdmf 14 years ago |

Here is a link to a comment that I made in another thread that might be helpful; http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2799727