[MD] MOQ/BOC

[Krimel]

> [Dan]
> If social patterns are not intellectual,
> how do we discriminate them from other patterns?
> Are they hard-wired into our nature?

[Craig]
No, if they were hard-wired they would, of course, be
biological.
IMHO social patterns must be learned & there is a 
"right vs. wrong" aspect to them (this last is the
subjective aspect, but see below).
If you itch, it is not right or wrong to scratch, 
it just is a biological response.
But if following a social ritual, there is a right or wrong
wrong way to do it. If in addition,
there is a reason for doing it a certain way
(other than, "that's just the way the ritual goes"),
then we are in the intellectual realm.

[Krimel]
Hardwiring in biology is a metaphorical term. It does not mean being
programmed in act in an inflexible ways. It means being programmed with a
set of possible reactions to probable events in the environment. Behavior is
the interaction of biology with the environment. It is not determined by
biology or the environment alone but by their interaction.

Smiling and frowning are biologically programmed behaviors but they are
triggered by events in the environment. A social ritual like say a religious
service is an intellectual pattern which specifies a set of rules and
symbols to evoke social behaviors and express social emotions. Right and
wrong are intellectual assessments of how well the ritual was performed in
the service of social aims.