[MD] Sociability Re-examined

[John Carl]

I have noticed a lot of conflict and confusion over the years of this
discuss, on what is meant by social.
Pirsig himself admitted as much in the Baggini interview when he said when
it comes right down to it, it's
hard to think of anything that isn't social in some way or another.  And
this is true because everything that is,
is in relation.  Therefore, I've been thinking a bit about the matter and
have come to the following conclusions:

Social patterning has to be more than belonging to a set - so while the
planets of our galaxy interact faintly with each other,
they are not social because the special meaning of social must be
restricted to life.

In life we find three different types of society - Instinctive, imitative
and codified.

Instinctive includes the ants and the bees, which have social structures
hard-wired into their DNA.
Imitative sociability is that which we find amongst the wolves and the
dolphins and all  mammals (including humans) to a greater or lesser extent
Codified, is that special realm of social patterning that is transmitted
through oral or written rules that are passed from
generation to generation which seems to be the exclusive domain of humans.

And tho many of you don't like the term, another name for codified social
patterns is, Religion.

The third level is then, the Religious level.

Thoughts?