[Xmca-l] Re: Vygotsky,Marx, & summer reading

[Greg Thompson]

Backing up a bit, I have an ignorant question here:

what does the "germ" of "germ cell" refer to?

I'm caught up in English germs and can't think of what else the term might
imply (e.g., in Germ-an...). Sorry, this is a CHAT 101 question but perhaps
some others on the list might appreciate getting a better sense of what is
meant by "germ".

-greg

On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 3:01 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:

> I would like to propose the following tests for a unit of analysis. They
> are all based on things Vygotsky wrote in the pedology.The examples, from
> biology, political economy, and music, are my own.
>
> a) It must be maximally simple. That is, it must be small enough to be
> manageable in experiments, clinical settings, and observable using
> "objectivizing" methods of research such as the functional method of dual
> stimulation or the Zoped. For example, cells can be managed in a petri
> dish, drawn from patients during examinations, and their genesis may be
> provoked and observed with a microscope: the commodity can be abstracted
> from an exchange for analysis, observed as it arises in production and
> exchange, and elicited through barter and markets. The four note "theme" of
> that opens Beethoven's fifth symphony is simple enough to play on a timpani
> as well as a piano.
>
> b) It must be minimally complex. That is, it must contain functioning
> analogues of all the properties which are the object of investigation. For
> example, cells have functioning analogues for metabolism, reproduction, and
> equilibrium with the environment.Commodities contain, in a coded,
> potential, or "embryonic" form, all the social relations of labor and
> capital we find in a mature capitalist economy. Beethoven's "theme" is
> complex enough to describe the structure of the symphony as a whole, and to
> form its coda.
>
> c) These analogues cannot be simple, miniaturized "recapitulations" of the
> properties which are the object of investigation. The mechanisms of cell
> metabolism, reproduction, homeostasis are not the same as the metabolism of
> the human organism. A commodity cannot produce or exchange or invest
> itself; it does not contain productive labour or finance capital in
> anything but a coded form; these must be unfolded through the historical
> process and that historical process is not infallibly predictable.
> Beethoven's "theme" did not create its variations and permutations:
> Beethoven did.
>
> Applying these tests to the units that Andy proposes (with one exception,
> number three below, they are also based on Vygotsky!) we find:
>
> 1. Word meaning is maximally simple but not minimally complex. It doesn't
> contain analogues of interpersonal meanings, e.g. questions, commands,
> statements, requests. It doesn’t contain analogues of textual meanings,
> e.g. hypotaxis and parataxis, Theme and Rheme, Given and New information.
>
> 2. The social situation of development is minimally complex but not
> maximally simple: it does construe the ensemble of relations between the
> child and the environment at a given age stage, including the whole of
> actual and potential language, but these cannot be managed in an
> experimental or clinical setting, or elicited in complete form using the
> functional method of dual stimulation or the Zoped.
>
> 3. Mediated actions are maximally simple and minimally complex, but not, as
> far as I can see, structurally, functionally or genetically different from
> the phenomena of activity they purport to explain.
>
> David Kellogg
> Macquarie University
>
> Recent Article: Vygotsky, Halliday, and Hasan: Towards Conceptual
> Complementarity
>
> Free E-print Downloadable at:
>
> http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/W7EDsmNSEwnpIKFRG8Up/full
>
> On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 10:37 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>
> > Word meanings for the study of (verbal) intellect
> > Artefact-mediated actions for the more general study of the development
> of
> > activity
> > Perezhivaniya for the study of personality development
> > (Defect-Compensation) for the study of disability or whatever
> > Social Situations of Development for the study of child development
> >
> > See page 9 on https://www.academia.edu/11387923/
> >
> > Andy
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > Andy Blunden
> > http://home.mira.net/~andy
> > http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
> > On 19/08/2017 10:47 PM, Martin John Packer wrote:
> >
> >> What are the five, Andy?
> >>
> >> Martin
> >>
> >> On Aug 18, 2017, at 9:07 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Amazon have it for $38.21: https://www.amazon.com/Vygotsk
> >>> y-Marx-Toward-Marxist-Psychology/dp/1138244813 which is not too bad.
> >>>
> >>> My chapter is available at https://www.academia.edu/11387923/ but so
> >>> far as I can see other authors have not posted theirs on academia.edu
> -
> >>> maybe elsewhere?
> >>>
> >>> Thank you, Alfredo, for highlighting how I have pointed to 5 different
> >>> domains in which Vygotsky demonstrated the "method of analysis by
> units."
> >>> To me, it seems useless to identify a writer's methodological
> innovations
> >>> unless you can transport that methodology to a different context, and
> >>> pointing to five applications by Vygotsky himself seemed a good way of
> >>> showing how portable the method is. More recently, I used this method
> in an
> >>> approach to political science, taking a group of people in the room
> trying
> >>> to decide on what they are going to do together as a unit of analysis.
> >>> Personally, I think this method has proved very fruitful and original.
> How
> >>> lucky we are to be inheritors of Vygotsky's brilliant insights, still
> >>> generally so unknown to the general scientific audience. What a gift
> LSV
> >>> has given us!
> >>>
> >>> But legacies are always problematic. Alfredo, I think you would be a
> >>> very good candidate to review this book. Beth?
> >>>
> >>> Andy
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> Andy Blunden
> >>> http://home.mira.net/~andy
> >>> http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
> >>> On 18/08/2017 10:16 PM, mike cole wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Peter, Alfredo Et al -
> >>>>
> >>>> It seems that the readers of MCA would appreciate a good overview
> >>>> review of
> >>>> the LSV and Marx book, but so far as I know, no one has proposed the
> >>>> idea
> >>>> to Beth, the book review editor. (You seem to have a jump on the task,
> >>>> Alfredo!).
> >>>>
> >>>> Also, given the cost of the book, it would be nice if authors could
> >>>> follow
> >>>> Andy's lead and make a draft available. Andy's article on units of
> >>>> analysis
> >>>> is on Academia, a click away. That way the many readers of XMCA around
> >>>> the
> >>>> world would not be excluded from the discussion.
> >>>>
> >>>> Mike
> >>>> Happy travels summer readers.  :-)
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
>



-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: greg.a.thompson.byu.edu
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson