Then, the problem of how to understand individual persons, and
their differences, in terms of CHAT revealed a *weakness* in this
theory, doubtless because of political pressures on science in the
former Soviet Union (in East Germany we had enough research on
individual differences, but no real development of CHAT). At that
time I was tempted to throw in some hints to Niklas Luhmann's
fundamental assumption about the total autonomy of social systems
from "mental systems" (psychische Systeme). "Persons aren't 'parts'
of social systems at all", he says. And, I believe he is right.
Now, with the climate/weather metaphor, and Gordon's zoom lens,
we have a distinction of levels purely on the side of the observer,
like in the "Powers of Ten" videotape/movie (Freeman, SciAm sells
it, I believe). Constructivists come in many brands and colours, of
course (Luhmann is one special kind of himself). People like Latour
would point to the many mediating instruments that make the seeming
seamless zoom from the quarks to the galaxies, passing through the
human skin, possible.
Historical constructivists, one of the first was Gianbatista Vico,
and realist semioticians, I believe, would argue that it has very
good practical (and ethical) consequences, if we construe the
levels as being "objectively real", and look for their "laws" of
self-organisation (a kind of 'critical ontology' if you wish).
If we do that, we can start anew from the assumption that, as
you say:
>... There are objective, albeit
>socially constructed tensions between
>ontogenesis and the development of an
>activity, for example, and between an
>activity and larger-scale
>sociocultural change.
and we will look at contradictions like the one between autonomy and constraining power in child rearing and schooling more soberly, more
like adults, less like people dreaming of some childhood days when a
motherly or fatherly or friend-groupy homeground was just supporting
us for a happy little while.
The real challenge is how to find ways of influencing the "higher"
levels in support of both groups and individuals. The recent
history of socialist and communist politics has shown that there
is a real danger of just helping to create and maintain another
autonomous and oppressive social system. News from the US, about
communitarians, about back-to-old-values movements, remains
confusing for me. World market dynamics, ecological large-scale
changes, just the same...
No doubt for me, though, that the young ones will find directions
away from the old, unter Schmerzen sicherlich (surely under pains).
This much from Hamburg: Arne.