Individual/Activity: Leont'ev

Bill Blanton (BLANTONWE who-is-at conrad.appstate.edu)
Sat, 28 Oct 1995 23:56:55 -0400 (EDT)

Anna,

The following from Leont'ev (1978, p. 106) is in line with Darwin
and at the same time recognizes individual interacting
(activity) with the environment.

"The concept of "individual" expresses indivisibility,
wholeness, and special features of a concrete subject evident
already at early stages of the development of life. An indiviual
as a whole is a product of biological evolution in the course of
which there takes place not only the process of differentiation
of organs and functions but also their integration, their mutual
"coordination."...The most general rule here is that the higher
we ascend the ladder of biological evolution, the more complex
become the life manifestations of individuals, and the more th
organization expresses the differences in their inate and
acquired characteristics, the more, if this can be said, the
individuals are individualiized....Presenting in himsilf the
product of phylogentic and ontogenetic development in given
expertal circumstances, the individual, however is not in any way
a simple "calque" of these conditions; he is specifically a
product of of the develp;ment of life interacting with an
environment and not environment taken by itself."

Bill Blanton