Re: [xmca] second nature

I would like to relate the discussion of "second nature" to the issue of
transparency when the subject and mediating tool become so well coordinated
that the tool becomes
transparent (see Michael's article on mediation and the cole/levitin article
he references which is on lchc.ucsd.edu). Our culture becomes our "second
nature" when it becomes
so familiar, comes to be used to seamlessly as a medium for experiencing the
world that it ceases to be consiously present. Our behavior is, of course,
always mediated through
culture in what michael refers to as the "structural" sense, but ceases to
be mediating in what he refers to as the "functional" sense. In our class
last week where we read wertsch,
roth, lsv, etc on mediation, a philosophy grad student refered to the
transparent case as "from a first person point of view" as opposed to the
third person point of view.

TGIFriday!!
(at least, it is here in san diego)
mike

On 10/12/07, White, Phillip <Phillip.White@cudenver.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Andy - i recently saw "Ten canoes" - a film from your parts of the
> world - yes? and it looked to me that the folks portrayed in the film -
> possibly thousands of years ago (?) - while part of the natural world, did
> not live in the natural world, but rather in their own tool-mediated
> culturally constructed world - when a dead body was painted, for example,
> yes, the paint was natural, of the earth and plants, the the reason for the
> paint wasn't about living in a natural world - the paint was a cultural
> artifact viewed through a semiotic lens - or, when bodies were painted in
> preparation for war -
>
> anyway - i wondered if in fact, since language and perhaps even before
> (witness baboon social relations and inherited dominance), if we folks have
> ever lived in anything but artifacts - regardless of the degree of
> sophistication of our technologies - and, as Foucault would assert, language
> is one of our technologies.
>
> merely meanderings out here in the Rocky Mountain West - (irony here)
>
> phillip
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu on behalf of Andy Blunden
> Sent: Fri 10/12/2007 6:51 AM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] second nature
>
>
>
> Yes, yes, I understand that, Maria.
> My question is not about the person as such but about the world we live
> in,
> the environment, which is no longer a natural world but a world of
> artefacts. Obviously (especially for us) a closely related idea, but not
> the same.
> Andy
>
>
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>
>
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Received on Fri Oct 12 17:08 PDT 2007