Two Symbolic Golden California Bears, Plato and Aristotle, Greet the Traveler as They Cross This Bridge!

“I think it was Coleridge who said everyone is either a Platonist or an Aristotelian. People who can’t stand Aristotle’s endless specificity of detail are natural lovers of Plato’s soaring generalities. People who can’t stand the eternal lofty idealism of Plato welcome the down-to-earth facts of Aristotle.” (Cont. Next)

US-101 crossing the Klamath River, near Klamath CA.
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Aristotle and Plato! You Can Say Which Symbolic Golden California Bear, Is Which.

“[People who can’t stand the eternal lofty idealism of Plato welcome the down-to-earth facts of Aristotle.] Plato is the essential Buddha-seeker who appears again and again in each generation, moving onward and upward toward the "one." Aristotle is the eternal motorcycle mechanic who prefers the "many." I myself am pretty much Aristotelian in this sense, preferring to find the Buddha in the quality of the facts around me, but Phædrus was clearly a Platonist by temperament and when the classes shifted to Plato he was greatly relieved.“ (Cont. Next)

US-101 crossing the Klamath River, near Klamath CA.
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Out The Grimy Window You Can Barely Make Out A Tree and The Sidewalk In Front of the Hospital Wall. Phaedrus Classroom Possibility Number Three.

… “ ….. [and when the classes shifted to Plato he [Phaedrus] was greatly relieved.] His Quality and Plato’s Good were so similar that if it hadn’t been for some notes Phædrus left I might have thought they were identical. But he denied it, and in time I came to see how important this denial was.” (Cont. Next)

Cobb Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
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From Cobb Lecture Hall, Fifth Floor, A View Of The University Of Chicago Hospital. At The Far Right Is Seen The University of Chicago’s Building Which Holds The University Book Store And Coffee Shop, Both Of Which Are Mentioned in ZMM.

…“The course in the Analysis of Ideas and Study of Methods was not concerned with Plato’s notion of the Good. However; it was concerned with Plato’s notion of rhetoric. Rhetoric, Plato spells out very clearly, is in no way connected with the Good; rhetoric is "the Bad." The people Plato hates most, next to tyrants, are rhetoricians. ..
…The first of the Platonic Dialogues assigned is the Gorgias, and Phædrus has a sense of having arrived. This at last is where he wants to be.“ (U. Chicago Cont. Next)

Cobb Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. A close up of the Disk Shaped Sculpture (seen in /\ Above /\Photo), on the plaza before the hospital, will be seen in a later photo.
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This Painting, Discovered In Phaedrus’ Classroom Building, Cobb Hall, Seems To Represent What Is About To Happened To Phaedrus? Or Perhaps It Represents Our Modern Times?

… The University of Chicago’s Swift Hall Is Seen Through the Window At Left.

…“All along he has had a feeling of being swept forward by forces he doesn’t understand—Messianic forces. October has come and gone. Days have become phantasmal and incoherent, except in terms of Quality. Nothing matters except that he has a new and shattering and world-shaking truth about to be born, and like it or not, the world is morally obligated to accept it. ” (University of.Chicago Cont. Next)

Cobb Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
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In The Second Building East Of Cobb Hall), Which Is The University of Chicago’s Social Science Research Building, Is Found This Enormous Oval Table.

…The View Out the Window Looks Over the Trees To A Wide Wonderful Park Like Mall, Called The Midway Plaisance. This Mall In Part, Is Scene Of the 1893- Chicago Columbian Exposition (World Fair).

…“In the dialogue, Gorgias is the name of a Sophist whom Socrates cross-examines. Socrates knows very well what Gorgias does for a living and how he does it, but he starts his Twenty Questions dialectic by asking …. ”
NOTE: The Narrator here (in one page) discusses how Socrates ’s questions (written by Plato) serve only to discredit the Sophists. He finishes with => Socrates is not using dialectic to understand rhetoric, he is using it to destroy it, or at least to bring it into disrepute, and so his questions are not real questions at all—they are just word-traps which Gorgias and his fellow rhetoricians fall into. Phædrus is quite incensed by all this and wishes he were there.” (University of Chicago Cont Next)

Photo in Social Science Research Building, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
*** ATTENTION: THE BELOW IS A REPEAT OF WHAT WAS SHOWN ~94 PHOTOS PREVIOUS:***

…A) This Satellite Map View Identifies Many Buildings Mentioned In My Photos => For Example, You Will Be Able To See Locations of U. Chicago’s => a) Cobb Lecture Hall, b) Hospital, c) Bookstore, d) Main Quadrangle, e) Midway Plaisance, which is a Mile Long Mall, along the South Side of the U. C. Campus, and was part of the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition World’s Fair (Read More at Plaisance & Neighborhoods Below). …. RIGHT CLICK AND SELECT “NEW TAB” => After Satellite Map View Comes Up, ClickOn The Plus&Minus To Zoom. You Can “Click&Drag” Map In Any Direction, to See More Off Your Screen Edges.

…B) A University of Chicago Page Will Come Up Showing Map of U. Chicago Campus. . At Left of Map, You Can Click-On LIST, To IDENTIFY MANY U. CHICAGO BUILDINGS Mentioned In Photos In This Album. For Example: Cobb Hall, The University’s Hospital, and University Bookstore …. RIGHT CLICK AND SELECT NEW TAB => After UC Campus Map View Comes Up, ClickOn The Plus&Minus To Zoom. You Can Click&Drag Map In Any Direction, to See More Off Your Screen Edges.
…ALSO Notice SEARCH Box.

..C) .. When “The University of Chicago Was Originally Being Constructed”, Adjacent to The South & East Was “The 1893 World's Fair: Columbian Exposition”. This was also known as the “Chicago World's Fair”.
… Dedicated in October in 1892, this World's Fair held in Chicago, was to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492.
…The Exposition was located in Jackson Park and on The Midway Plaisance, on 630 acres (2.5 km2) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn. (The Above Are Excerpts From Wikipedia.)
….More Wikipedia Historical Information, AND ~THIRTY REALLY GREAT PHOTOS of the 1892 Fair. => RIGHT CLICK AND SELECT “NEW TAB” => AFTER The Wikipedia Page Comes-Up, click on any of the Photos, to see Very Large Photos, in a Special Photo Viewer. In this Photo Viewer, you can click on the > at right, to Advance Next. .

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Ivy Vines And Leaves Have Grown Over the Windows Since Phaedrus Was In These Classrooms ~October 1961.

…“In class, the Professor of Philosophy, noting Phædrus’ apparent good behavior and diligence, has decided he may not be such a bad student after all. This is a second mistake. He has decided to play a little game with Phædrus by asking him what he thinks of cookery. …
…Phædrus is silent and tries to work out an answer. Everyone is waiting. His thoughts, working at lightning speed, tries to work out an answer that will prevent his being thrown by a dialectical hold. He never answers! The class goes on. Phaedrus, his mind racing on and on, does not hear the lecture…. He sees his own evil. ” [After 1.5 pages, the Narrator finishes this section with => ]
…“The Professor calls the lecture to an early end and leaves the room hurriedly. ... After the students have filed out silently Phædrus sits alone at the huge round table until the sun through the sooty air beyond the window disappears and the room becomes grey and then dark.“ ” (University of Chicago Cont Next)

First Floor Cobb Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
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Walking South Along This Sidewalk Towards The University of Chicago’s Social Science Research Building (Behind The Trees At Right), Phaedrus May Have Gone By the Ivy Covered Walls Of Foster Hall At Left & Ahead, =>

…As He Was On His Way To The University Of Chicago’s Harper Memorial Library, Which Is To the Right (West) And Continuing West Beyond The Social Science Research Building.

…“The next day he is at the library waiting for it to open and when it does he begins to read furiously, back behind Plato for the first time, into what little is known of those rhetoricians he so despised. And what he discovers begins to confirm what he has already intuited from his thoughts the evening before. .. Plato’s condemnation of the Sophists is one which many scholars have already taken with great misgivings. The Chairman of the committee himself has suggested that critics who are not certain what Plato meant should be equally uncertain of what Socrates’ antagonists in the dialogues meant. When it is known that Plato put his own words in Socrates’ mouth (Aristotle says this) there should be no reason to doubt that he could have put his own words into other mouths too.” (University of Chicago Cont Next)
On sidewalk in front of Foster Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
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The Development of Modern Steel, Concrete, & Asphalt Required Scientific Truth. The Same Holds For These Cars, Steel Posts, Concrete Walks, Asphalt Streets, and Brick Buildings.

….. Indeed, The Same Holds For The University Itself, and the Whole of Western Man. These Likewise Require the Operation of Truth!

…[In 2.5 pages, the ZMM Narrator covers what Phaedrus discovered about the Sophists and Pre-Socratic Greek History. The Narrator relates why and how the early Greek Philosophers, in the “first conscious search for what was imperishable in the affairs of men, suppressed and discredited the Sophists“.
...We are told of Phaedrus’s discovery of the following passage in a small book called “The Greeks” by H. D. F. Kitto. Then continues =>]
…“The resolution of the arguments of the Cosmologists came from a new direction entirely, from a group Phædrus seemed to feel were early humanists They were teachers, but what they sought to teach was not principles, but beliefs of men. Their object was not any single absolute truth, but the improvement of men. All principles, all truths, are relative, they said. "Man is the measure of all things. .. These were the famous teachers of "wisdom," the Sophists of ancient Greece." ”
…[Phaedrus discovered there was a war between those who believe in absolute truth and those who believe in only relative truth. The Narrator finishes with:]
…“The results of Socrates’ martyrdom and Plato’s unexcelled prose that followed are nothing less than the whole world of Western man as we know it. If the idea of truth had been allowed to perish unrediscovered by the Renaissance it’s unlikely that we would be much beyond the level of prehistoric man today. The ideas of science and technology and other systematically organized efforts of man are dead-centered on it. It is the nucleus of it all.” (University of Chicago Cont Next)

Looking NE, East End Of Main Center Mall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
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This Sculpture Could Symbolize “The Greatest And The Best”

…[[In 2 pages, the ZMM Narrator explains how Phaedrus began to search for how and why the Early Greek Philosophers would want to eliminate virtue. We are told of Phaedrus’s discovery of very poignant passages in a small book called “The Greeks” by H. D. F. Kitto. Here is a portion of what the Narrators said => ]
…“"What moves the Greek warrior to deeds of heroism," Kitto comments, "is not a sense of duty as we understand it—duty towards others: it is rather duty towards himself. He strives after that which we translate ‘virtue’ but is in Greek areté, ‘excellence’—we shall have much to say about areté. It runs through Greek life." … There, Phædrus thinks, is a definition of Quality that had existed a thousand years before the dialecticians ever thought to put it to word-traps. Anyone who cannot understand this meaning without logical definiens and definendum and differentia is either lying or so out of touch with the common lot of humanity as to be unworthy of receiving any reply whatsoever. Phædrus is fascinated too by the description of the motive of "duty toward self " which is an almost exact translation of the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes described as the "one" of the Hindus. ” (University of Chicago Cont Next)

Plaza in front of University Hospital, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

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Here Could Be Platform Places For Statues Of Three Early “Famous Teachers of ‘Wisdom’!”
[Phaedrus then asks:]
… “Can the dharma of the Hindus and the "virtue" of the ancient Greeks be identical?
…Then Phædrus feels a tugging to read the passage again, and he does so and then—what’s this?! . .
…"That which we translate ‘virtue ‘ but is in Greek ‘excellence." .
…Lightning hits! .. Quality! Virtue! Dharma! That is what the Sophists were teaching! Not ethical relativism. Not pristine "virtue." But areté Excellence. Dharma! Before the Church of Reason. Before substance. Before form. Before mind and matter. Before dialectic itself.
…Quality had been absolute. Those first teachers of the Western world were teaching Quality, and the medium they had chosen was that of rhetoric. He has been doing it right all along.“

Photo, Central Maintenance Building, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Since these roof sheltered recessed platforms do not have any statues of the saints, I hereby propose that these places of honor should have statues of the Sophists of Ancient Greece! They taught Quality through …. Rhetoric!
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The Horizon, Partly Obscured By Fog, Is Just Beyond The Horizontal Line Of The Sandbar.

…“The rain has lifted enough so that we can see the horizon now, …. ” Cont Next)

Five miles south of Orick, CA.
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The Horizon May Be Discerned As The Line Separating The Lighter Sky Above The Water.

…“ …. a sharp line demarking the light grey of the sky and the darker grey of the water.
…Kitto had more to say about this areté of the ancient Greeks. "When we meet areté in Plato," he said, "we translate it ‘virtue’ and consequently miss all the flavour of it. ‘Virtue,’ at least in modern English, is almost entirely a moral word; areté, on the other hand, is used indifferently in all the categories, and simply means excellence." …. “
…[The end of this Kitto quotation follows => ]
…“ Areté implies a respect for the wholeness or oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization. It implies a contempt for efficiency—or rather a much higher idea of efficiency, an efficiency which exists not in one department of life but in life itself.” (Cont Next)

Five miles south of Orick, CA. The water is darker than the sky because the water, stirred up by surf, has a heavy burden of darker silt and organic matter. Clearly ‘murkier’ than even the foggy air!
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Trees And Cold Misty Coastline.

…We “Gain” The Power And Convenience Of Electricity,

…But We “Lose” Pristine Beauty Beyond The Ever Present Wires Seen In This Photo.

…“Phædrus remembered a line from Thoreau: "You never gain something but that you lose something."
…And now he began to see for the first time the unbelievable magnitude of what man, when he gained power to understand and rule the world in terms of dialectic truths, had lost.
…He had built empires of scientific capability to manipulate the phenomena of nature into enormous manifestations of his own dreams of power and wealth —
…but for this he had exchanged an empire of understanding of equal magnitude: an understanding of what it is to be a part of the world, and not an enemy of it.” (Cont Next)

Five miles south of Orick, CA. As in the previous photo’s “sharp line demarking the light grey of the sky and the darker grey of the water.“ The electric power lines in the /\ Above /\ Photo, are also Geometer’s “Straight Lines” The ZMM Narrator Continues the “Straight Line” topic, as you will see in NEXT photo.
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The Original Geometer’s Line.

…“One can acquire some peace of mind from just watching that horizon. It’s a geometer’s line—completely flat, steady and known.
…Perhaps it’s the original line that gave rise to Euclid’s understanding of lineness; a reference line from which was derived the original calculations of the first astronomers that charted the stars.
… Phædrus knew, with the same mathematical assurance Poincaré had felt when he resolved the Fuchsian equations, that this Greek areté was the missing piece that completed the pattern, but he read on now for completion.
…The halo around the heads of Plato and Socrates is now gone. He sees that they consistently are doing exactly that which they accuse the Sophists of doing using emotionally persuasive language for the ulterior purpose of making the weaker argument, the case for dialectic, appear the stronger.
…We always condemn most in others, he thought, that which we most fear in ourselves. .. But why? ” (Cont Next)

Five miles south of Orick, CA. Our word “line” is a variant of our word “linen”.
…In Ancient Egypt, the Land Surveyors used linen strings made out of the fibrous stalks of the flax plant, still the source of our finest linen table cloths.
…For the Egyptians, those “linens” , marked out the edges of each farm property marked over the mud left after the yearly flood.
…Based of the study of the history of language, this almost certainly indicates an alternate origin of our word and concept of “line” and “straight line”.
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Is This Jumble Of Overhead Wires, Electric Power Poles, Wire Fence, Steel Fence Posts, Buildings, And Pavement =>
… Our Heritage From “Aristotelian logic & Aristotelian forms.”?

…A Southeast View From the Old Road To Arcata. We Are Further Inland Now, Thus More Warmth and Way Less Cold Fog.

[After two pages explaining “why” would Plato want to destroy Areté, (often wrongly called virtue), the Narrator concludes => ]
…“And today in those few Universities that bother to teach classic ethics anymore, students, following the lead of Aristotle and Plato, endlessly play around with the question that in ancient Greece never needed to be asked: "What is the Good? And how do we define it?
…Since different people have defined it differently, how can we know there is any good? Some say the good is found in happiness, but how do we know what happiness is? And how can happiness be defined? Happiness and good are not objective terms. We cannot deal with them scientifically. And since they aren’t objective they just exist in your mind. So if you want to be happy just change your mind. Ha-ha, ha-ha." ..
…Aristotelian ethics, Aristotelian definitions, Aristotelian logic, Aristotelian forms, Aristotelian substances, Aristotelian rhetoric, Aristotelian laughter . . . ha-ha, ha-ha.” (Cont Next)
Second Rt-101 exit for McKinleyville, CA.
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In The ZMM Narrative, The Cold, Dark, Misty, Wet Road (Metaphoric Bridge Connection), Symbolizes

…The Horrible Disappearance Of The Ancient World’s Understanding Of Areté …And Its Corresponding Understanding Of Excellence & Duty To Self.

…All This, Now GONE Into The Awesome Cold Darkness Of Time.

…“And the bones of the Sophists long ago turned to dust and what they said turned to dust with them and the dust was buried under the rubble of declining Athens through its fall and Macedonia through its decline and fall. Through the decline and death of ancient Rome and Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire and the modern states—buried so deep and with such ceremoniousness and such unction and such evil that only a madman centuries later could discover the clues needed to uncover them, and see with horror what had been done. . . .
…The road has become so dark I have to turn on my headlight now to follow it through these mists and rain.”
…;;(End Chapter. 29.)
NOTE1: By abruptly ending Chapter 29 here, Author Robert Pirsig is telling us of the utter finality and near permanence of his words just finished!

Road at night South of Weott, CA.

NOTE2: Near the end of the above ZMM Passage, There is a very good Metaphoric Bridge Connection, which has the typical => Next Paragraph “Abrupt Switch”
… FROM => The Narrator’s Chautauqua presentation end => “ and see with horror what had been done.
…TO => “The road has become so dark .

The Above NOTE2 Introduces => Yet Another Metaphoric Bridge Connection, That Author Robert Pirsig Wants To “See”: Such As Was Discussed In Previous Photos, That Were At These Locations =>
… La Pine, OR… . Crater Lake National Park, OR. .. Social Science Research Building & Cobb Hall, University of Chicago. … East edge of Crescent City, CA. … Six miles South of Orick, CA.
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CONCERNING THE ABOVE-MENTIONED “End Of The Above ZMM Passage” Next Paragraph “Abrupt Switch:” … THE BELOW CONTINUES TO DISCUSS THIS Metaphoric Bridge Connections (MBC), IN A SIMILAR WAY, AS PREVIOUS PHOTOS, AS FOLLOWS =>

… In His Book ''Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance,” (ZMM), Author Robert Pirsig, Wants Us To Remember That ANY TIME There Is. “A Next Paragraph Abrupt Switch,” Either Way, Between Chautauqua & Travel Narrative, We Then Are To =>
..1) Take notice and actively, poetically see the Metaphoric Bridge Connections (MBC), either way, between the a) Chautauqua Lecture and b) Travel Narrative Scenery+Actions...
..2) We should realize these MBC’s are carefully and purposefully put here by Author Robert Pirsig for this very emphasis.
..3) In fact, it is very likely that the physical landscape locations along the ZMM Route, were chosen for this very purpose. This is because these descriptions above a) & b) would effectively two-way illuminate (by MBC) each of the respective Chautauqua Topics AND Travel Narrative+Actions, that Mr Pirsig wanted to present in his book.
..4) For example, one of the two different “types” of Metaphoric Bridge Connections, which Author Robert Pirsig Wants The ZMM Reader To See, Is In The Above ZMM Passage, and is explained as follows =>
…After the Narrator finishes discussing the => “… and see with horror what had been done.
….Then there is a Next Paragraph “Abrupt Switch” to => “The road has become so dark .
..5) Here Author Robert Pirsig wants the “… r and see with horror what had been done.." to apply (Metaphoric Bridge Connection) to the => “ he road has become so dark , and conversely.
..6) Click Here For => A Special Study Ot The Major ZMM Topics => A Study Of Metaphoric Bridge Connections (MBC), That Are Found In Robert Pirsig”s Book Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM).
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The Road To Arcata, CA Here Goes Inland Where The Narrator and Chris Could Have Been Much Warmer And Not Have Any Cold Rain Or Fog, As You See Here.

…“(Start ZMM Chapter 30.) “At Arcata we enter a small diner, cold and wet, and eat chili and beans and drink coffee. .. Then we are back on the road again, freeway now, fast and wet. We’ll go to within an easy day’s distance from San Francisco and then stop.” (Cont Next)

US-101 turn off on Rt-299 into Arcata, CA. I did not attempt to locate a 1960’s style restaurant in Arcata, hence no photo.
…For the /\ Above /\ Photo and several later photos, I’m sorry not to be able to always show photos appropriate for the Narrator’s passages describing driving at dark and in the rain.

…New topic: The Narrator says “within an easy day’s distance.“ Just a few miles back from here, I saw a sign that said “298 Miles to San Francisco”. … This is one day’s drive by Narrator’s typical travel standards already mentioned several times in ZMM.
…As best I can determine (by “best fit”), the Narrator’s next motel, should be at (or near) Fortuna, CA, some 25 miles further South from Arcata, CA.. Of course, I use the Narrator’s local scenery descriptions both before and after his next motel (page 359), to guide my search for the next ZMM Motel location..
…And as you will see in 23rd next photo, I did find a Motel that closely fits the Narrators text. An thus, in keeping with the factual underpinnings of ZMM, the next ZMM Motel is in actual fact, “within an easy day’s distance“. So, all together, we continue to see the factual accuracy and realism of the ZMM story, in nearly all respects!!
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