[MD] MOQ/BOC

[david buchanan]

Dan said to Arlo:
Yes you're right. I should have pulled up the quote instead of relying on memory. But my question still stands: If social patterns are not intellectual, how do we discriminate them from other patterns? As I said, I am confused. Are they hard-wired into our nature?



dmb says:

To discriminate social values from intellectual values I think it helps to remember that they have different purposes. Social levels values are always going to be about protecting society in some way. Originally that meant putting some restraints on the natural, biological purposes and of course you see tons of that in social level morality. Vice is more popular than ever, but that's beside the point. It seems there are several different ways to construe the purpose of the intellectual level but it's not to get laid and it's not to be rich or famous. It's not biological or social. So, if nothing else, you can identify which statements and ideas are NOT expressing intellectual values. They'll be advocating these other values, either hedonism or piety, free-love or chastity. Patriotism and religiosity are almost always the giant's voice, don't you think? 

It's not like we're ever gonna have a hard sharp line on a thing like this. Each person is gonna be a blend of all this stuff to varying degrees and the culture itself is a evolving mixture of these values. It's just supposed to orient you in general way and then you just have to make the call as best you can. I'm glad about that too. Hard-nosed rules just wouldn't be in the spirit of the thing, you know?