[MD] Regarding The Fundamental Nature of The Intellectual Level

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Ian]
Just amongst "us girls" Arlo, that is patently not true ;-)

[Arlo]
What's funny is teaching this to students learning English. Since 
many other languages do contain gender-nonspecific plural terms, they 
don't have this same problem. Others have been infiltrated by English 
so that they say "guys" (the way many of us say "amigos") without 
recognizing that it really is gender-male. By the way, in Spanish 
"amigos" is handled the same way, it refers to a group of males, or a 
group of mixed gender, or a group of unknown gender, while "amigas" 
only refers to a group of all female gender. But I don't know if it 
is common in these communities to say "hola amigos" when addressing a 
group of all females (the same way "hey guys" can be used to address 
all females in English). But both Spanish and English are western 
languages, and so their patriarchal underpinnings aren't surprising.

[Ian]
BTW I like your "individuals within collective activity view" - I was 
using the usual shorthand of individuals and collectives, because I 
feel many are making that distinction when they say "individual". But 
in reality these things are matters of dynamic connection.

[Arlo]
Yeah, I know. I don't mind the shorthand. When I see you write 
"individual" I know its from a whole different place that when Platt 
writes "individual".

[Ian]
I would recommend people look at Alan Rayner's "Fluid Dynamic 
Inclusionality" - very poetic.

[Arlo]
Will check it out.

[Ian]
All these discussion about what the self and "I" really are also 
blurring the concreteness of the individual.

[Arlo]
Thankfully so.