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[xmca] 1982 paper on schooling



I just had a read of Mike's 1982 paper with Roy D'Andrade on the influence of schooling on concept formation:

http://lchc.ucsd.edu/Histarch/ap82v4n2.PDF

Great paper!

It occurred to me that Luria is in agreement with many others that a hierarchical system of categories, a taxonomy, is the archetype of the "abstract" concept. Luria's conception of how this relates to prior forms of concept (affective and concrete) is the main point of interest in the article, but I would like to question whether this taxonomical idea is valid as the archetype of the "true" concept. The article claims that taxonomical practices ("true" or not) are archetypal school practices, and this is an interesting and different question.

An interesting counterpoint to this is Hegel's classification of 3 different components which he thinks must *all* be present in the formation of a true concept:

The subject is (a) ascribed certain qualities; (b) seen as having having a certain place in a system of social practice; and (c) taken under its genus, as belonging to a certain living whole.

Further, I think (c) does not actually amount to the kind of Linnaean hierarchical family tree, but could also be interpreted like genre and archetype without the implied underlying totality. Also, there is all too much room for subsuming (c) under (a) as almost all of present-day philosophy and natural science are wont to do.

Mike, you have done a lot of work on the role of this "taxonomical activity" in and out of school. Davydov on the other hand, emphasises (b) as opposed to (a). It would be interesting to investigate concept-formation on this wider frame.

Andy

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*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
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