http://www.geocities.com/~nschmolze/toolssi.html
I was wondering if the notion of ideality had something to say
about the recent discussion of constructivism. I am
particularly thinking of concepts of constructivism, learner
centered etc being applied in contexts (traditional societies)
from which the concepts did not originate. I am also thinking
on the line of Newman and Holzman's differentiation between
tools in that tool for results are tools that come socially
reified. Would it be resonable to use the Marxian notion of
"ideality" to say to look at how concepts such as
constructivism, learner centered etc. serve as a tool for social
production of a dominant culture in a "third world context". I
was curious if ideality was the right conceptual tool for
looking at this process.
Paragraph from Peter's paper:
"The crucial point is not that tools embody human aims and that
this is what makes them ideal; the point is that human aims -
the conscious aims with which humans act to produce what they
need - are themselves ideal: human aims are nothing but the
material process and outcome of activity in ideal form. The
ideal image is the object of production (ie the outcome of
productive activity) converted into (or ideally posited as)
an internal image, as a need, as a drive and as purpose
(1977a: 260, quoting from Marx, Grundrisse). The distinction
between things that are material and things that are ideal is
not, therefore, a question of what is in the heads of the users
of such things, but is a fact about how things function in the
real process of social production - a material (not conceptual
or semiotic) process which, in its own self-development and
differentiation, generates an ideal (or semiotic) image in the
form of a relation in which some things (words, pictures, money
etc) come to stand for other things. This, indeed is the special
and vital function which ideal forms fulfill in human
life-activity: they allow the goals, aims, drives, purposes,
strategies and forms of action and cooperation of social
humanity to be represented outside of, prior to and
independently of the real activities which engender them:"
Nate Schmolze
http://www.geocities.com/~nschmolze/
schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu
People with great passions, people who accomplish great deeds,
People who possess strong feelings even people with great minds
and a strong personality, rarely come out of good little boys
and girls
L.S. Vygotsky