Since I read your questions I've been looking for answers to them, thinking - when there's time to do it - erraticaly... (I'm not sure if there is such a word in english. If not, please, understand it as a neologism trying to figure out a non-formal or rigorous way of thinking)
I try, below, answer to them - but, please, have in mind I do not have any pretention of being the owner of "the truth"... Just convert in words some embrionical ideas affected by the current discussion you fired in XMCA.
-----Mensagem original-----
De: Charles Nelson <c.nelson@mail.utexas.edu>
Para: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Data: Terça-feira, 30 de Janeiro de 2001 17:55
Assunto: Different motives
Questions:
Does motive always determine the activity?
I do not think it can, always, determine an activity. Maybe, in turn, engaging in any activity could be possible only through some motive...
Or, does different people having different motives change the activity system for each individual even if they physically are doing the same thing?
Yes, I think the personal meaning of a specific activity can be different to those people engaged in it.
Because people can have more than one motive while engaging in work (e.g., survival, pleasure, social influence, etc.), can one person with multiple motives doing the same thing be engaged in more than one activity?
Maybe these multiple motives you refer to, could be summarized or reduced to one: the main one. Despite people engaged in an activity could, personaly, have different motives to be doing it, they would be involved in a very specific socio-cultural object-oriented one. But their actions within it, in turn, yes, could have very different goals.
Given the difficulty of determining motive(s), how do we identify the "real" activity?
If the "real" activity of a couple is, for example, "to have a dinner" in a very "in" restaurant, the motive of each partner to be engaged in it could be very different one another: Maybe for one of them the motive could be "eat and bannish hungry", to the other, "watch" and "be watched" in company. Even so, the "real" activity still be "having dinner". Don't you think so?
Charles Nelson
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 01 2001 - 01:01:02 PST