Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals

by Robert M. Pirsig

First, there were moral codes that established the supremacy of biological life over inanimate nature. Second, there were moral codes that established the supremacy of the social order over biological life—conventional morals—proscriptions against drugs, murder, adultery, theft and the like. Third, there were moral codes that established the supremacy of the intellectual order over the social order—democracy, trial by jury, freedom of speech, freedom of the press. Finally there’s a fourth Dynamic morality which isn’t a code. He supposed you could call it a “code of Art” or something like that, but art is usually thought of as such a frill that that title undercuts its importance. The morality of the brujo in Zuñi—that was Dynamic morality.