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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (Paperback)

by Robert M. Pirsig (Author) "I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the leftgrip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning ..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (315 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 436 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Non-Fiction; 25th edition (May 5 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0688171664
ISBN-13: 978-0688171667
Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.5 x 3 cm
Shipping Weight: 363 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (315 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

In his now classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig brings us a literary chautauqua, a novel that is meant to both entertain and edify. It scores high on both counts.

Phaedrus, our narrator, takes a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip with his son during which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details--be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle.

In his autobiographical first novel, Pirsig wrestles both with the ghost of his past and with the most important philosophical questions of the 20th century--why has technology alienated us from our world? what are the limits of rational analysis? if we can't define the good, how can we live it? Unfortunately, while exploring the defects of our philosophical heritage from Socrates and the Sophists to Hume and Kant, Pirsig inexplicably stops at the middle of the 19th century. With the exception of Poincaré, he ignores the more recent philosophers who have tackled his most urgent questions, thinkers such as Peirce, Nietzsche (to whom Phaedrus bears a passing resemblance), Heidegger, Whitehead, Dewey, Sartre, Wittgenstein, and Kuhn. In the end, the narrator's claims to originality turn out to be overstated, his reasoning questionable, and his understanding of the history of Western thought sketchy. His solution to a synthesis of the rational and creative by elevating Quality to a metaphysical level simply repeats the mistakes of the premodern philosophers. But in contrast to most other philosophers, Pirsig writes a compelling story. And he is a true innovator in his attempt to popularize a reconciliation of Eastern mindfulness and nonrationalism with Western subject/object dualism. The magic of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance turns out to lie not in the answers it gives, but in the questions it raises and the way it raises them. Like a cross between The Razor's Edge and Sophie's World, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance takes us into "the high country of the mind" and opens our eyes to vistas of possibility. --Brian Bruya

From AudioFile

Although more than twenty years have passed since the book's original publication, Pirsig's philosophies on technology and science, nature and love still offer much to this generation. Lawrence Pressman's delightful performance conveys the author's deep awareness and self-discovery. The combination of the book's vivid imagery and Pressman's contemplative delivery help ease the listener into Pirsig's lesson: we should pay less attention to "what things mean," more attention to "what they are." R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the leftgrip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

315 Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars zen, May 5 2009

By	Grant Sorochan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Paperback)

I read a borrowed copy years ago and thought back on it many times it is a delight when your memory of the thoughts provoked by a good book are the same years later.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look ma, no hands., Nov 11 2007

By	Cannesta, Mike (Bristol) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (Mass Market Paperback)

Great book. Not what you're thinking it's about. Love it. If I were to draw a timeline of philosophy with two markers, one marker would be the works of Plato and Aristotle, which placed Truth at the top of the heap (a proposition which forms the basis of western scientific thinking); the other marker would be Pirsig's work, which places Good at the top and Truth second. Pirsig had an insight into the Quality Relationship. Just as an eye cannot see itself, the Quality Relationship is very difficult to see because it is the means by which seeing (in the intellectual sense) takes place. Even the purest scientific truth passes into the mind of its discoverer on a rail established by the Quality Relationship. The implication is that all truth is personal and subjective, even widely accepted scientific truths. That acceptance exists in the minds of many individuals, each of whom is motivated to receive the information and judge it against scientific criteria. The motivation rests on the Quality Relationship, and that is strictly a personal value judgement of whatever the mind choses to examine. Since individuals possess the Quality Relationship, this philosophy places individuals above science (modern society seems to need some of that view). Pirsig's second work, Lila, examines what it means for larger social entities such as governments to possess their own Quality Relationships. The book is also the exquisitely told personal story of Pirsig's efforts to recover this insight after losing the memory of it to shock treatment. A beautiful book in all respects

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4.0 out of 5 stars for the philosophically inclined, Dec 2 2007

By	Paul J. Fitzgerald "author" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is for the philosophically inclined, and somehow I never quite got into it. I found myself enjoying the events in the book (especially the traveling), rather than the abstractions and ponderings of the author. However, it's probably a classic for the latter items rather than the former. I can see why people like it so much, and it is very well written and timeless, but it's not my cup of tea. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Boring
I remember reading this book when it first came out, but don't recall what I thought of it back then. Read more

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2.0 out of 5 stars ADD and the art of motorcycle maintenance
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