[MD] Intuitive Reasoning?

[Case]

Case:
> But you are a collective entity. 

[Ham]
I was referring to social collectivism and the attribution of experience,
intellect and value to an extracorporeal level.  

[Case]
The extracorporeal level?  Is this the level where you are free to
fantasize, make up polysyllabic terms and indulge yourself with double
negatives? 

[Ham]
Thank you, Dr. Spock, for this comprehensive pediatric chronology.  Yes,
this is the evolving consciousness and the attendant motor skills.  (I read
somewhere that the baby recognizes the mother first, and much sooner than
two months, but perhaps the pediatric researchers have updated their facts
in recent years.)  But, what's your point?

[Case]
The point is that we are social creatures. We come that way right out of the
box.

[Ham]
Well, that's all very interesting, and I suppose if you're a sociologist,
pediatrician, or a new parent, social development is significant.  Again,
though, you've taken my statement out of its philosophical context.  My
criticism of Pirsig's thesis is simply that he describes man almost
exclusively as a creation of biological evolution and societal conditioning.

Virtually every function that is commonly understood to be innate in human
beings -- consciousness, the psyche, creativity, intellect, experience,
morality, and value sensibility -- has been stripped of its individuality
and "collectivized" in some extracorporeal stratum called Quality.  One gets
the feeling that the author would like to dispense with the individual
entirely and regard man as an incidental byproduct of organic evolution.
Sartre expressed much the same attitude when he said that man is
"unnecessary since the world would exist just as well without him."  Yet
individual human experience is central to both existentialism and the MoQ.

[Case]
I can see where you would find disturbing any reference to what is actually
happening. Reality does seem to cramp your style. Your term paper shows
little concern with it. I have noticed several times in the past that any
attempt to bring you into contact with it causes one to be ignored; which is
often a blessing. 

[Ham]
Or am I the only one who still believes that man is a special creature and
that the world is anthropocentric?

[Case]
Since this idea has been progressively discredited and shown to be misguided
over the past 800 years it would be nice to think you are the only one left
but that is probably optimistic.