"The individual 'I', which served as the object of sophistic speculations, gave place to the universal 'I', to the 'I' of the human species, to the conscience of the human race."

Three!

Good point. I teach middle schoolers so I think I've just trained myself to bracket everything they do off from normal human behavior..... I'm going to have to think more about this.

Also, re play, esp playing at adult jobs, to support your point, maybe what's going on is that younger kids are okay *not knowing* what the act does, which is different than knowing (or thinking they know) that it *doesn't* do anything.

I also what "doesn't do anything" means for ritual. E.g. if you think prayer is about changing your attitude rather than God doing stuff for you (I don't, but for the sake if argument), then sure, ritual doesn't do what it says on the label, but it doesn't do nothing.

Yes, those are good distinctions. I'm coming at this from a mostly Confucian POV, which means I have a tendency to say ritual is pretty much everything.

OTOH, on their own children engage in highly ritualistic behavior, in play as well as in prayer. Children repeat prayers and hymns and without having any idea what they mean, get upset when arbitrary daily/weekly rhythms are disrupted, act out grownup jobs without any understanding of them...

(Et, hūmus eārum malus, quae siccus dūrissimus fit. Aqua ergo et ad herbās nutriendās et ad hūmum molliendum est. Semper mē prōmittō aliquandō novum hūmum impōnere, sed...)

Ita! Sunt herba turgida, "succulenta" ut dīcāmus. Multum aquae magnum post intervallum eīs placent, ut in sōlitūdinibus patriīs eārum. Gratiās prō spectandō :)

Et magistris!