Mediation
HDCS6 who-is-at jetson.uh.edu
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 18:06:55 -0500 (CDT)
David Kirshner's recent message about Piaget had me thinking on my drive
home (which, thanks to Friday afternoon traffic left plenty of time for
thinking). And I thought, if Piaget would talk about mediation in
older children and adults, wouldn't he say that it is the Kantian
categories that mediate our activity. Ah, I thought, a form of
mediation that does not really involve language or tools. What I
don't like about it is the imperative part. So, I ask myself (as
I switch lanes), what if we take the imperative out of the category.
What if social groups have advanced to the point where they are able
to create their own historically driven categories, much like the
ones that Kant envisioned. And it is these historical categories
that mediate our world. I haven't read Kant for a while, so I
don't know if this really works.
If this all sounds rather bizarre to you, remember it is Friday
the 13.
Michael Glassman
University of Houston