[Xmca-l] Re: "conscious awareness enters through the gate" (a Participation Question)

[Anthony Barra]

Thanks for the endorsement, Andy.

And please, feel free to jump in again. (BTW, we now have an audio-only
option, for easier downloading and on-the-go listening:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/7n3nsz__;!!Mih3wA!UpNDh2SuTGnq9M1EnvMT-VtliHnUd3ya7fk0uZkNlLzTzcyDRVWzHHRCIucmy20J_VnBCQ$  -- note that Seasons 3 and 4 feature the short
snippets and "Answered Questions")

Anthony



On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 9:28 PM Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:

> Can I just vouch for Anthony's project. He does a fine job of editing and
> I think his collection of tiny videos make a real contribution to
> Vygotsky's legacy. A diversity of voices help, so please! someone else
> stump up to join Anthony's crew.
>
> Andy
> ------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> Hegel for Social Movements
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!Spj7ybW_LUoFXDv2iVA1TKJKPAjhKyftAGi76oylQzObUE6aRnFXF53u2cffhj_WKhBqiw$>
> Home Page
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!Spj7ybW_LUoFXDv2iVA1TKJKPAjhKyftAGi76oylQzObUE6aRnFXF53u2cffhj_9df2EcQ$>
> On 12/08/2020 6:03 am, Anthony Barra wrote:
>
> Good afternoon,
>
> This is a question -- and an invitation:
>
> First the question: *What do you understand the passage below (at the
> bottom of this email) to mean?*
>
> Second, the invitation: *How about sharing your thoughts in short video
> form?* It's quite enjoyable (ask Andy; ask David; etc) -- and it's also
> helpful, not only to me but to anyone watching or listening. (Here is the
> question again, in video form: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/l41nsz__;!!Mih3wA!UpNDh2SuTGnq9M1EnvMT-VtliHnUd3ya7fk0uZkNlLzTzcyDRVWzHHRCIucmy21Mmvxmyw$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/l41nsz__;!!Mih3wA!RbTsEBrr1M-JQ2E0Cza-8aoA440vsBAtR7DQicuejOZvYN1AOyytgVid7plmKnYKHKx2jw$>
> )
>
> I believe that many people -- including many teachers -- would benefit
> from answers to this question, preferably multiple answers. With
> permission, I will nicely edit and add your response to this growing list
> of asked-and-answered questions: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/451nsz__;!!Mih3wA!UpNDh2SuTGnq9M1EnvMT-VtliHnUd3ya7fk0uZkNlLzTzcyDRVWzHHRCIucmy206Ednuqw$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/451nsz__;!!Mih3wA!RbTsEBrr1M-JQ2E0Cza-8aoA440vsBAtR7DQicuejOZvYN1AOyytgVid7plmKnayu3KfOQ$>
> Thanks for considering it, and note that we don't care about perfectionism
> here; it's mostly for fun.
>
> *Here is the passage in question*, from *Thinking and Speech*, Ch. 6, pp.
> 190-1:
>
>> "To perceive something in a different way means to acquire new potentials
>> for acting with respect to it. At the chess board, to see differently is to
>> play differently. By generalizing the process of activity itself, I acquire
>> the potential for new relationships with it. To speak crudely, it is as if
>> this process has been isolated from the general activity of consciousness.
>> I am conscious of the fact that I remember. I make my own remembering the
>> object of consciousness. An isolation arises here. In a certain sense, any
>> generalization or abstraction isolates its object. This is why conscious
>> awareness – understood as generalization – leads directly to mastery.
>>
>
>
>> *Thus, the foundation of conscious awareness is the generalization or
>> abstraction of the mental processes, which leads to their mastery*.
>> Instruction has a decisive role in this process. Scientific concepts have a
>> unique relationship to the object. This relationship is mediated through
>> other concepts that themselves have an internal hierarchical system of
>> interrelationships. It is apparently in this domain of the scientific
>> concept that conscious awareness of concepts or the generalization and
>> mastery of concepts emerges for the first time. And once a new structure of
>> generalization has arisen in one sphere of thought, it can – like any
>> structure – be transferred without training to all remaining domains of
>> concepts and thought. Thus, *conscious awareness enters through the gate
>> opened up by the scientific concept*."
>
>
> What do you understand this passage to mean?
>
> Thanks 😎
>
> Anthony Barra
>
> P.S. My first encounter with *Thinking and Speech* was very difficult,
> even with the help of talented classmates and a smart professor.
> Thankfully, three online videos from Nikolai Veresov, presented not as a
> definitive reading but as a general map of the book's terrain, were really
> so helpful and encouraging for me. If any videos I'm posting turn out to be
> similarly useful (as a number of people have told me), that's great. So
> thank you again to anyone interested in participating.
>
>
>
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