[xmca] reflections on discourse & activity

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Hi Andy, Anna, and others interested in talking and thinking

The notion of "communication" as a central basic concept for the human
sciences is a topic that seems endlessly fascinating.  I've recently been
trying to understand Anna's 3 step process for concept formation. [1
Interiorization, 2 Condensation and 3 Reification] which seems to go in the
direction from analysis to synthesis.  I have also been exploring
Merleau-Ponty's notions of going from the synaesthetic to the analytic.
There seems to be a chiasmatic intertwining which is a term from
Merleau-Ponty that is now being further elaborated by John Shotter.  I
recently went to John's website and was fascinated to see the path of his
concept development.  I was intrigued because he has written books about
Vygotsky, Wittgenstein, Bahktin, and Merleau-Ponty.  I plan to spend more
time "conversing" with John. Following is an example of the project John is
developing.

In an earlier article [Shotter, *New Ideas in Psychology*, *11*, 61–75
(1993)], Vygotsky's account of internalization was reinterpreted from within
both an ethical and a rhetorical perspective. It was argued that rather than
having a mechanical and systematic character, our ‘inner lives’ function in
essentially the same communicative terms as our ordinary, everyday
transactions with other people out in the world. Here, this account is
further extended. Making use of Bakhtin's writings, it is claimed that
instead of functioning in terms of already well-formed mental
representations at the centre of our being, awaiting codification in words,
our mental activities are only ‘given form’ at the time of their expression,
in a moment by moment process of ‘ethically sensitive negotiation’ at the
boundaries of our being. This gives rise to a nonreferential, responsive
view of speech, and suggests that what we speak of as our selves or as our
ideas, rather than being real origins, or extralinguistic points of
reference ‘outside’ of our discourses, are created as a part of them. In
other words, presented here is a cognitive psychology without mental
representations.

This quote explores Anna's central notion of communication and cognition
being two sides of the same coin. It also captures Merleau-Ponty's central
notion of "expressive" cognition. These themes are exploring
"intersubjectivity" as a dialogical process as the basic, fundamental,
genesis of the human sciences.
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