Re: dialectics and CHAT

Arne Raeithel (raeithel who-is-at informatik.uni-hamburg.de)
Wed, 8 May 1996 12:06:12 +0200

At 22:18 7.5.1996, Yrj=F6 Engestr=F6m wrote:
>I and my Finnish colleagues could not have developed our empirical brand of
>activity theory, namely developmental work research, without getting
>seriously immersed in those vague and general texts on dialectics.
>Ilyenkov's attempts at making dialectics more substantial and based on
>analysis of concrete material (such as Marx's Capital) were particularly
>important. The very concept of contradiction is practically missing or used
>only as an everyday notion in much of the current sociohistorical and
>situated literature. I find this gap a source of tremendous weaknesses in
>analyses of empirical data.
>
>Here, at present, there is a renewed need to study and appropriate
>critically Marx and Engels.
>
>Yrjo Engestrom

It is clear for Germany, too, that the contributions to activity theory
would not have been developed without the renewed interest in a Marxist
approach to history and politics at the end of the sixties. I would
point to the same sources (e.g. Ilyenkov) when asked where a good text
on dialectics is found. Additionally, I always recommend Yrjo's book
as nearly the only one handling contradictions in a manner suitable
for empirical research. It is, however, only available by photocopying,
and similar or even more severe problems of getting other important texts
are quite typical.=20

I haven't denied a possible *need* for a critical re-appraisal of Marxian=20
social theory and empiry, especially for those who have built their work
on that basis. I wrote about *chances* of doing this here, and together
with the next generation. Germany is obviously different in having the
internalized version of the present restructuring of the former east/
west polarity, and the historical failure of the command socialism is
presently nearly non-separable from the scientific value of historical
materialism, and dialectical philosophy (quite different from party=20
pamphlets). For many, me among them, it is clear that there must be very
serious flaws in the grand theory. Yet, to discuss this has proved
impossible. People have either thrown everything overboard, or still
hold to every old conviction.=20

So, in this respect, too, I see the present situation as one where we
need to understand most how to further cooperation and communication
as relations that supersede contradictions, without silencing those.

Arne.