Re: the evolving triad

Eva Ekeblad (eva.ekeblad who-is-at ped.gu.se)
Tue, 29 Dec 1998 09:55:11 +0100 (MET)

At 11.37 -0700 98-12-28, Katherine Goff wrote:
>my confusion concerns the move from stimulus and response to subject and
>object.
>
>if the response becomes named as the object of the activity, how does the
>stimulus transform into the subject? what are some reasons or alternative
>readings for this transformation?

Kathie

isn't the transformation of the triad rather done by a naming of the
_actant_ of each node? So the tool is acting in way of mediating link, the
_subject_ acting in way of response and the _object_ acting in way of
stimulus.

The behavioristic vocabulary of the first triad formulation would seem to
render the individual as the _passive_ actant and the environment as the
_active_ actant, while the philosophical vocabulary of the second triad
reverses the power, so to speak... for me the whole point is that the
relation works both ways simultaneously, which is what I have learned to
project into the subject-object-mediator terminology.

cheers
Eva