Mike Cole wrote:
> I prefer optimism to pessimism, and your ideas about combined and uneven
> development. I will have to work at the problem more because I am unsure
> of the germ cells "vs" unit of analysis issue.
As I understand it Mike, "germ cell" is the concept
originating with Goethe and transmitted to CHAT via Hegel,
Marx and Vygotsky. It represents a specific idea about what
the starting point for a science should be, for both
researcher and novice-learner. So for us, the "proper" "unit
of analysis" for a science is a "germ cell," or concept.
But positivists also have a theory about the subject matter
of a science, about the smallest element(s) of the domain
covered by the science. Positivists don't take the advice of
Goethe and Hegel, they are just interested in the "smallest
unit." So for sociology, the unit of analysis might be
individual people. It's much like the resolution on their
microscope.
Andy
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Received on Thu Dec 11 21:16:54 2008
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