Phaedrus

Phaedrus is the main character of Lila: An Inquiry into Morals. He is a thinly veiled alter-ego version of Robert Pirsig, and thus, the book is semi-autobiographical. Phaedrus is introduced in Kingston, New York, where he is sailing his boat down the Hudson river but is stymied by the closure of a river passage. Here he meets Lila, whom he picks up in a bar and takes back to his boat. They proceed to sail down the river together. Phaedrus is an intellectual man, an author, who is a philosopher in the purest, creative sense. He is working on a writing project that he calls "A Metaphysics of Quality," an all-encompassing undertaking that begins when he attends a vision-quest ceremony on an Indian reservation. Within this Metaphysics of Quality, Phaedrus is attempting to re-think the foundations of scientific philosophy in order to create a forum where his "armchair...