xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes: Yrjo writes:
> Be that as it may, I
>think that we can see a tension between individual-centered psychologism
>and
>collectively oriented activity theory in many places in Leont'ev's book.
Yrjo, i can't see the tension - not yet, anyways - that you mention
because i'm disoriented by Leontiev's descriptions of consciousness and
its direct relationship to work.
early on Leontiev wrote: "For this reason we turn again and again to the
works of Karl Marx, which resolve even the most profound and complex
theoretical problems of psychological science." and so i'm wondering if
i'm having a difficulty in discerning the marxist dogma from activity
theory as i'm been used to reading it.
for example - Leontiev writes that: "Although consciousness also has its
own history of evolution of the animal world, it first appears in man in
the process of the organization of work and social relations.
Consciousness from the very beginning is a social product."
this seems a chicken/egg predicament - and i don't know what sort of
anthropological/archeological evidence he's using - it runs counter to
contemporary thought about the physical structure of the brain and
consciousness - (Edelmann, for example)
and just a bit further on: "The real explanation of consciousness lies
not in those processes but in social conditions and modes of that activity
which makes up its indispensability - in work activity."
i'm more comfortable with this statement, until the caveat of "work
activity" - is all activity _work_? or is work activity the only valued
activity? what am i missing here?
is there a whole structure of marxist thought about consciousness that
needs to be scrapped?
phillip
/ \ / \ / \
/ \ / \
Buddha speaking to Vasettha:
One is not a brahmin by birth,
Nor by birth a non-brahmin.
By action is one a brahmin,
by action is one a non-brahmin.
So that is how the truly wise
See action as it really is,
Seers of dependent origination,
Skilled in actions and its results.
Action makes the world
go round,
Action makes this
generation turn.
Living beings are bound
by action
Like the chariot wheel
by the pin.
phillip white
third grade teacher
doctoral student
scrambling a dissertation
denver, colorado
phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu
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