Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanace

A detailed Summary of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanace

Imagine traveling state to state on a motorcycle, the wind rushing through your hair and the vibrating of the engine massaging your body. Imagine traveling cross-country on a Honda motorcycle on a seventeen-day journey. Robert Pirsig and his son Christopher experienced exactly this. Pirsig saw this journey as a way to rediscover himself after a mental breakdown, to ponder the basic aspects of philosophy, and to decipher the way people think. His son was just along for the ride. And from this adventure, the basis of Pirsig's first book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, was created.

Robert Pirsig was born on September 6, 1928, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Education played a very important role in Pirsig's upbringing. After he finished his four years in high school, he enrolled in the University of Minnesota. Unfortunately, he dropped out after only two years, and he joined the U.S. army shortly there after. After completing his term in the service, Pirsig returned to the University of Minnesota, and received his B.A. in 1950.

Later in his life Pirsig traveled to India to study philosophy at the Benars Hindu University. In 1954, Pirsig returned to the Midwest and married his first wife, Nancy James. Pirsig li

Solution of problems too complicated for common sense to solve is achieved by long strings of mixed inductive and deductive inferences that weave back and forth.... The correct program for this interweaving is formalized as scientific method.... (1) Statement of the problem, (2) hypotheses as to the cause of the problem, (3) experiments designed to test each hypothesis, (4) predicted results of the experiments, (5) observed results of the experiments and (6) conclusions from the results of the experiments." (Pirsig 93)

The formation of hypotheses is the most mysterious of all the categories of scientific method. Where they come from, no one knows. A person is sitting somewhere, minding his own business, and suddenly-flash! -He understands something he didn't understand before. Until it's tested the hypothesis isn't truth. For the tests aren't its source. Its source is somewhere else. (Pirsig 99)

Deductive inferences do the reverse. They start with general knowledge and predict a specific observation. For example, if, from reading the hierarchy of facts about the machine, the mechanic knows the horn of the cycle is powered exclusively by electricity from the battery, then he can logically infer that if the battery is dead the horn will not work. That is deduction. (Pirsig 92)

Philosophy was a major piece of the puzzle in Pirsig's head. He used philosophy to explain things that were going on around him and to also describe what he was thinking. The way he discusses the aspect of time is just one of many examples. Pirsig saw the future as something that came up on him from behind his back and the past receding away from him right before his eyes. He uses this as a metaphor to describe how people can't face the future, and that all he can really do with the past is to project from it and hopefully learn from it. Pirsig questions, "What sort of future is coming up from behind, I don't really know. But the past, spread out ahead, dominates everything in sight." (Pirsig 292)

Pirsig uses induc

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Approximate Word count = 1359
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English