[Xmca-l] Understanding/changing "something"

[mike cole]

For a current writing project I have been led to think about the fact that
Kurt Lewin is widely quoted as telling his students and colleagues that "if
you want to understand something, try to change it."

I have long associated this idea with the notion that if you want to
understand HISTORY, try to change IT. But either I am reading
Lewin into Marxism, or hallucinating. Can it really be true that no Great
Leader has ever said that you want to understand history (a particular
"something") try to change it?

There are well known major influences of Lewin on both Vygotsky and Luria
that might be illuminated by this inquiry, one way or the other.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

mike

-- 

All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable which makes
you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something
that isn't even visible. N. McLean, *A River Runs Through it*