For people of read zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance or want to answr a phylisophical question?

Question

how would you answer the question that phaedrus asks his students to write an essay about... what is quality in though and statement

Answer 1

Quality is authenticity.

Authenticity is truth.

Expressing and being truth in love is quality.

"The Path of the Higher Self," Mark Prophet,

"Testimony of Light," Helen Greaves,

"Watch Your Dreams," Ann Ree Colton,

"The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock,

"The Master of Lucid Dreams," Dr. Olga Kharitidi,

"Autobiography of a Yogi," Yogananda,

"The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis,

"Expecting Adam," Martha Beck,

"Extraordinary Knowing," Dr. Elizabeth Mayer.

Answer 2

there is no perfection... what there is is quality... in a sense quality is a standard... the betters of the available... which is not to say that the lessers of the available lack quality... it is often through the lessers that we learn to appreciate the greaters…    

Answer 3

Quality is a subjective ideal. To say something has "quality" is to measure it against a standard of other somethings, a standard which is inherently subjective. Quality in thought is only meaningful if applied to a standard of thought. Same thing with Quality in statement.

Phaedrus makes the observation of something along the lines of we can't define it, but we know it when we see it. The same standard that was once applied to Obscenity. And this is a common theme of subjective standards. What is a "quality" motorcycle? Ask one person and they will say a powerful engine or mpg's, ask another and they will point to the repair record, and another might say that it looks nice.

Same thing with thought and statement. Ask someone and they might say that someone who adheres to Christian ideals has quality; someone else might say an artist who produces great works; or a capitalist who makes everyone around him prosperous.