Erin,
Well, mythos has a decidedly human connotation. Thus when i say ant mythos
im using a very abstract idea with little understanding of it myself. The
original point was that because the social level is subjective we can only
discuss the portion of it which supports our intellect. But, viewing other
behavior which is somewhere between biological and intellectual, i blindly
assume that there must be some reason, which ants "understand" and which we
cannot, for this behavior. Because seemingly irrational human behavior can
be explianed from the inside with a mythos, i use the same term for whatever
an ants reason may be (although no individual ant has a "reason", which is
an aspect of the intellect).
Yes, ants dont tell stories.
well, whoever told you this "altruistic" behavior was biological wasnt
thinking in terms of the MoQ level system. To logical positivists like
that, all behavior is "hardwired" as a "survival response", but these terms
imply determinism which does not exsist in a Quality orientated philsosphy.
Ants (and squirrles, although i dont know anything about this behavior) are
guided by Quality to forsake their own lives for something greater, and
these values are social in nature i believe not biological (ants dont have
mythos, but can we agree that they have values beyond that of biological
impulses? social values perhaps? all for the greater good of the greatest
number... and the source of social values id like to call mythos, but
perhaps your right and the term is too broad for non-intellect level
species)
Maybe i've made myself more clear,
elliot
>Hello Elliot,
>
>I have heard of this "altruistic" behavior but with squirrels I think.
>When I heard it described it was as a hard-wired survival response.
>To me it sounded like it was still biological.
>
>To me this survival response is not equal to life-sacrificing act based on
>mythos.
>
>Mythos: a pattern of beliefs expressing often symbolically the
>characteristic
>or prevalent attitudes in a group or culture
>
>Mythos does have a social connotation to me but it seems messy to
>extend it to your ant analogy.
>Ants will sacrifice themselves for a greater good based on a mythos???
>Please expand on this some more -- I am not quite sold on your idea.
>
>
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