I have actually thought Pirsig is ISTp.Originally Posted by Phaedrus
I have actually thought Pirsig is ISTp.
Not the worst of guesses, but he is not an ISTp. Why would you think that he is that type?
Taoism is very clearly IP in temperament, so one can understand why people suggest ISFp. But it is also very clearly, so SEI would only fit in an outward sense. And Taoism is also cynical and distanced from the world in a way that is not compatible with leading
types. However, this typing problems illustrates what is wrong with the quadras and why they should not be used as a typing tool.
On hindsight, I think you are right.
Why? What have made you change your mind? Why do you now think that Pirsig is not an ISTp? The arguments here are more interesting than our opinions.
Pirsig's ideas sort of reminded me of Paulo Coelho's. Moreover, he VIs like him. Pirsig definitely has a Te ego, and after reading the wikiquote entry about him, I believe that he is Ni>Si:
-You look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you can come up with something.
-It took me more than a week to deduce from the evidence around me that everything before my waking up was a dream and everything afterward was reality. There was no basis for distinguishing the two other than the growing pile of new events that seemed to argue against the drunk experience. Little things appeared, like the locked door, the outside of which I could never remember seeing. And a slip of paper from the probate court telling me that some person was committed as insane. Did they mean me?
-I've noticed that people who have never worked with steel have trouble seeing this... that the motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. They associate metal with given shapes... pipes, rods, girders, tools, parts... all of them fixed and inviolable, and think of it as primarily physical. But a person who does machining or foundry work or forge work or welding sees "steel" as having no shape at all. Steel can be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not.
I think you are right, but how do you know that he has Te ego? What do you see as evidence for that?
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