[MD] self: agent of action & thinker of thoughts

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Marsha]
While the way discussion has been framed, the 'self' does seem to be an 
intellectual static pattern of value. But I'd like to remind you that 
within the MoQ the self is also a collection of organic, biological, 
social and intellectual static patterns of value:

[Arlo]
This isn't quite what I meant, and I don't think I said the "self" is an 
intellectual pattern of value. I said it is a pattern of value (what 
else is there, other than DQ?), and of course with a MOQ a higher 
pattern ipso facto consists of the lower patterns that support it.

What I'd say is that your "description" of "self" is an intellectual 
pattern of value, but like other descriptions can point outside the 
intellectual level. For example, I could define the "self" as the "human 
body", in which case the "intellectual pattern of value" (which is the 
definition) points to a biological pattern of value (the human body).

And, yes, I think we use the self pattern of value to make sense of 
inorganic, biological, social and intellectual activity. In some 
contexts it is useful to think of the "self" as bounded by the 
biological body ("You stepped on my foot", for example), while at other 
times we dismiss this (when I had my appendix removed, I didn't feel as 
if any part of "my self" was removed). When a skydiver is falling out of 
an airplane suddenly the "self" as rooted in inorganic patterns is 
intensely salient (gravity matters).