[MD] Step two

[ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR]

[Jan-Anders]
Football and other team sports can be considered as instruments for evaluating social patterns of ”shared attention”, isn’t it? 

[Arlo]
I'm not exactly sure of what you mean by "evaluating". Taking a stab, I overheard someone tell in my local pub say that Mario Goetze's World Cup Final goal was  a "work of art". Certainly, the "work of art" was the coordination, awareness, precision and communication between not just Andre Schurrle and Mario Goetze, but the entire team. In that sense, yes, I'd say that the activity displayed among the German team day was 'artistry' (read "high quality endeavor"). And, I admit I choose soccer in my example specifically because of the (IMHO) obvious need for all players to have "shared attention" on the ball (in order to succeed). 

But, I'd caution here that I am not saying that social patterns are nothing more than "shared attention". The World Cup is no more 'just shared attention' any more than the human body is 'just carbon atoms'. Shared attention (I argue) is present in all social patterns, the same way carbon atoms are present in all biological patterns, but I am not arguing that "social patterns = shared attention" (which, again, would be like saying "biological patterns = carbon atoms"). As Tomasello argued, "shared attention" is a specific feature of a complex neural mass, not a social pattern in and of itself. It is what enabled the emergence of the social level. From this "evolutionary stratagem" (as Pirsig refers to carbon bonding) appears increasingly complex semiotic, mediated activity (social patterns).