[Xmca-l] Re: Leontyev's activities

[Andy Blunden]

Greg,
perhaps we could try some alternative words to "motivation"?
What about "ideal" or "concept"? The ideal or concept of a project 
defines the norms which characterise the activity, and give us the best 
go at making sense of the "motivation of an activity". I say "the best 
go" because "motivation" seems to me to be a word which is applicable 
only to individual persons. Leontyev used the word "motive" for what 
defined an activity in a way that is ambiguous. It can be, as in Manfred 
Holodynski's interpretation, the end which is being served by the 
immediate goals of the actions making up the activity, in the subjective 
sense that a person is going to the window (goal) because they want give 
a speech (motive), but also in the objective sense, for example, that an 
arms factory is producing guns because the community needs guns. In this 
latter sense, the motive of "producing guns for the community" is an 
"only understood motive," and what motivates the factory worker (sets 
her in motion) is the need to earn a wage to raise their family - that 
is the "really effective motive." But the concept of "arms production" 
does not rely on the questionable idea of "corporate motivation", just 
the norms of participation in "arms production".

Does that assist at all in your issue, Greg?
Andy

Greg Thompson wrote:
> ...
> p.s. ... I think Larry described nicely
> what I am trying to achieve - a notion of activity that does not have at
> its center a sovereign subject. My post questioning the merging of
> phenomenology with activity theory speaks to the central intellectual
> concern and the "for what" of what I'm hoping to do in my work.
>
>