[MD] Distinguishing Levels

[craigerb at comcast.net]

John Searle distinguishes between 'brute facts' & 'institutional facts'.
Brute facts about, for example, money are that it is rectangular; green; paper; with pictures of dead, white males, etc.  Institutional facts about money include its exchange value; issuing authority, etc.  In Pirsig's terms, brute facts are at the lower 2 levels.  Institutional facts emerge with the social level.  They require mutual recognition of group intentionality.  Neither an ant colony nor a human city per se is at the social level, nor is mere social interaction between individuals.   A city government, though, is.        
Craig