Re: [xmca] Wells article

I also appreciate Sasha's insights. I have puzzled over Vygotsky's
hierarchy of "scientific concepts" over "everyday concepts" and
wondered to what extent he created that hierarchy, either consciously
or otherwise, in part to maneuver around the growing Stalinist
bureaucracy that was taking over everything in Soviet society in
Vygotsky's time and calling its increasing grip on all institutions
"Marxist science". At the same time, mere individual practical or
everyday knowledge of a thing is most certainly not enough to fully
comprehend it, just as Sasha emphasizes that academic, abstract
knowledge of a thing is also insufficient. To master a thing one
must do both - know a thing through internalizing the "doing" or
"practice" of it, while also internalize the full range of cultural
and scientific practices and conceptualizations of a thing through
studying and experiencing its full cultural history, including all
its definitions. This view of simultaneous practical AND scientific
internalization is a key element of the vision of common working
people and everyday citizens becoming the philosopher-scientist-
statespeople of the world, a vision I believe Vygotsky very much had.

- Steve

On Oct 7, 2007, at 10:53 PM, Gordon Wells wrote:

>> Sasha wrote:
>>
>> 2. As for problem with terms die Vorstellung and das Begriff or their
>> Russian equivalent predstavlenie i pon'atie, it has nothing to do
>> with any
>> linguistic. Actually the problem has utterly practical
>> significance. Each
>> school-teacher or college professor which meets with special
>> ability of
>> his/here students to repeat after him/here using correct words and
>> theoretic
>> definitions without a tiny hint to real understanding of problems
>> analyzing
>> in his/her lecture meets with mentioned above substantial distinction
>> between Vorstellung and Begriff. So this distinction plays a great
>> role not
>> only in Hegel's or Il'enkov's logical treatise, but in schools,
>> colleges and
>> I will add in research practice. Even Vygotsky who knew both
>> German and
>> Russian and moreover was acquainted with Hegel's and Marx'
>> philosophy become
>> confused in those categories. Thus reasoning about a development
>> of concepts
>> (der Begriff) he puts so called "scientific concept" (which in
>> actual fact
>> is nothing but formal verbal definition or die Vorstellung) in the
>> summit of
>> the hierarchy of concepts. The great difficultness for all who
>> really want
>> to understand something, not only imitate such an understanding
>> before
>> those boring teachers, is to fight his/here way through the word's
>> shell to
>> the real understanding. The crucial criteria of such an
>> understanding is
>> practice. I do comprehend something (I muster das Begriff) if
>> basing on my
>> understanding I can practically act (by my own hands or by hands
>> of other
>> people) upon some natural or cultural object according to its
>> objective
>> shape. And contrary the brilliant "knowledge" of all kind of verbal
>> definitions has nothing to do with real education and real research.
>
>
> BRAVO!
> --
> Gordon Wells
> Department of Education
> University of California, Santa Cruz http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca

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Received on Mon Oct 8 09:48 PDT 2007