[MD] Another parallel

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[John] 
> my inclination is that all language arises from intellectual 
> patterns rather than the other way around. 

        

Pirsig said the intellectual level arose from the rituals of the third [institutional] level.   If you haven’t already read it, I guarantee once 
you start reading Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations” you won’t 
set it down until you have a new appreciation of language. 

  

[John] 
> In a shipwreck, there's a rule "women and children first".   If I 
> follow that rule it shows self denial wherein I certainly don't 
> flourish as an individual. 


”Flourishing” has too much connotation of the biological.   “Self-fulfilling” would be a better term.   Mother Theresa was self-sacrificing insofar as she put the biological and social well-being of others before herself, but was self-fulfilling with respect to the values she chose. 

Whether fulfilling your highest values is good, depends among other things, on the quality of your values. 

Craig