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Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, this maintenance of a motorcycle. They think it's some kind of "knack" or some kind of "affinity for machines" in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of reason, and most of the troubles are caused by what old time radio men called a "short between the earphones," failures to use the head properly. A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of mot
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― Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
― Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
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McKeon was a legendary University of Chicago philosophy professor who inspired 'cold sweat and raw fear' in a long list of students, including Susan Sontag, Richard Rorty, Paul Rabinow, and Robert Pirsig (who used McKeon as the model for the character of the dreaded 'Chairman' in his 1974 novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).
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― Letters to the Contrary: A Curated History of the UNESCO Human Rights Survey
― Letters to the Contrary: A Curated History of the UNESCO Human Rights Survey