[Xmca-l] Re: The Emergence of Boundary Objects

[Andy Blunden]

Thank you Lubomir.
Lubomir, it is not a problem of unfamiliarity with diamat. I 
was educated in the same diamat school as you were. Diamat 
translates very well into English. And nor is it a problem 
of translating between German, Russian and English. It is 
partly a problem of the departmentalisation of knowledge and 
activity, and partly a problem of getting one's head around 
genuinely interdisciplinary concepts. Unlike Manfred, you 
have ventured beyond the bounds of Psychology, so you give 
me the opportunity to illustrate my point.
Let us suppose that there are three characters whom I will 
call the Psychologist, the Sociologist and the Social 
Theorist for the sake of convenience.

You play the role of *the Psychologist*. Everything in your 
explanation is about the individual (a.k.a. subject) on one 
side, and society with its unchangeable laws, on the other. 
Objective meaning, is *socially agreed*! By whom? Pretty 
well any Psychologist will be inclined to see things this 
way, whether they were trained in diamat or not and whether 
they spoke Russian or English. Yes, the subject, i.e., the 
individual person, is an"active social agent" and can go out 
in the world and try to change things. They are a very small 
agent in the world, but enough of an agent to change what 
matters to them. It is the subject, an individual, on one 
side, and society with its unchanging, "agreed," "objective" 
meanings on the other.

*The Sociologist* on the other hand, does his or her survey 
and tells us that men and women think differently, as do 
retired people and workers, and blue collar workers have 
different opinions from white collar workers and so on. And 
these different groups of people interact. The Sociologist 
agrees that "objective laws of social reality cannot be 
changed" but he/she knows that every proposition you want to 
make about the social reality is contested, and there is no 
"socially agreed" meaning for anything. Muslims see things 
differently from Christians, etc., etc., and if things 
change it is because of the changing relations between these 
groups, and these changes are beyond the power of any 
individual to do anything about them. History sweeps over 
the individual like wave over a grain of sand. It is a 
matter of formulating the laws governing the interaction 
between these groups.

For *the Social Theorist*, the individual is an agent in the 
world beyond their immediate sphere of life only insofar as 
they can participate in some project, e.g. practising their 
profession, building up a firm or a political party, etc., 
and it here, taking actions as part of a collaborative 
project, that the the regularities of social life are made 
and broken. These projects are motivated by concepts of 
themselves which are manifested by their actions in the 
world as a whole, embedded in artefacts and signs and active 
in the consciousness of individual participants. The concept 
of "trade union" enters the consciousness of other people 
who are not unionists, thanks to the actions of trade 
unions, people learn about science, and have a concept of 
science, only because of the activity of scientific 
institutions and movements. These projects are not the 
Sociologists' social groups, but activities made up not of 
individuals but of actions. Projects are not sociological 
entities. They are the actions of individuals and are just 
as much part of Psychology as Social Theory, but the actions 
of individuals as such are mere capriciousness, grains of 
dust in the wind, except insofar as they are coordinated by 
concepts, that is, are carried out in collaboration with 
others. The world is made up not of old and young, male and 
female, Muslim and Christian, but feminism, business, 
farming, sport, socialism, etc., activities, the unit of 
which is a project.

Mike asked what is at stake here? What is at stake if we 
insist that there is an objective world, whose laws cannot 
be changed, and words/signs have objective meanings which 
are "socially agreed"? Where, if you don't accept the 
"socially agreed" meaning, you need to see a Psychologist to 
find out why. And who is it that is the arbiter of the 
"socially agreed" meaning of everything? Surely it speaks 
for itself.

Andy

------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
On 24/07/2015 12:49 AM, Lubomir Savov Popov wrote:

Hi Mike and Andy,

Sorry, it takes time to respond, and there are some other business going on.

Both Rubinstein and Leontiev work in a Historical Materialist (Histmat) paradigm. In this respect, there are no substantial differences between them. If we look from outside, the differences are minor. If we go in the details, there are always differences. However, my personal impression is that Rubenstein was more systematic and deep. He was also more of a psychologist rather than activity theorist.

In Historical Materialism, the subject is an active social agent. The subject exists objectively. This is not a paradox in that paradigm. On the other hand, although materialists talk about the objective existence of the world, they conceptualize people as active social agents, while the object of activity is subservient to the social agent/subject of activity. In addition, there is a dialectic between the objective existence of human beings and their*subjective (in the sense of personal*, individual) perception of the world. The subject is in the center of everything. When we talk about "subject", we do not mean subjectivity in the US sense. The Histmat is an objectivist paradigm that professes the objective existence of humans but at the same time acknowledges the perceptions and agency of the individual. It is a bit different to translate/transfer these concepts. In Historical Materialism the subject is not subjective in the Anglo sense, not biased, not partial, but exists objectively according to the laws of social reality. Of course, in a different usage of the term "subjective," the subject can display subjectivity in the Anglo sense, like developing political bias and prejudice in his/her perceptions and actions regarding the social world. So, the subject exists objectively and always in control of the object. The dialectic of the subjective and objective regarding a social individual also means that*each individual has his/her own specific consciousness*, but its content is affected strongly by*objective social laws that the subject cannot disregard*, even if he/she wishes so. By "social laws" we mean social regularities, and actually the Histmat people say -- objectively existing social regularities. This means that*the subjects or individuals can not affect or change these objective social regularities*. Again, there is no paradox when the Histmat people believe that the*objective laws of social reality cannot be changed*, but at the same time subjects have the power to change their lives and the organization of society. Yes, subjects/social agents can make changed, but within the limits of social regularities and using these objective social processes to their advantage, creating synergy.

In Histmat, they talk about subjective meaning (like in the Anglo discourses) and objective meaning (*socially agreed and accepted*  in everyday life conventions).

There is also one other topic, about the dialectics of the leader and the masses, and how the leader cannot change the world, only the masses can change the world, but they cannot do that without their leader. Basically, this is a political idea: you need a leader, but if you lose your leader, you can get another one and fight again. That is an example how Histmat was used to idelogize political situations and actions.

In principle, it is very difficult to translate/convert Histmat ideas into Anglo discourses. Most of the staff will be lost in translation. Even German words like Tatigkeit and Activitat are used very differently than in German language where they are synonyms. Marx has used these words to denote two very different concepts: Tatigkeit is activity, whole Aktivitat is used for all kinds of chemical and biological process, denoting some kind of movement and development of the situation or the cell, or whatever. The Histmat people religiously follow and keep this differentiation. It is a big mistake to substitute Tatigkeit (deyatelnost in Russian) for Aktivitat (aktivnost in Russian). Actually, the definition of deyatelnost is that it is goal-directed aktivnost.

Best wishes,

Lubomir