[Xmca-l] Re: LSV on language as a model of development

[Tom Richardson]

"situation in phylogenetic development where the
end-point of development is co-present with its beginning..." reminds me of
an Hegelian formulation,conceptualisation, (but standing on its own feet?)
Tom


On 2 July 2014 21:42, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:

> Mike:
>
> My favorite is on pp. 347-349 of the Vygotsky Reader, "The Problem of the
> Environment". It's too long to quote here, so I summarize.
>
> Vygotsky is making the point that unlike phylogenetic
> development, ontogenetic development is teleological. He  asks his students
> if they can imagine a situation in phylogenetic development where the
> end-point of development is co-present with its beginning and is actually
> capable of guiding its steps.
>
> (Since even the unimaginable has to be somehow come to mind, Vygotsky
> probably has in mind, probably, the USSR, where the most advanced form of
> social organization is co-present with hunter-gatherer societies in the
> North, pastoral societies in Central Asia, and subsistence agriculture in
> the Caucasus. When I try to do this, I somehow see flying saucers landing
> at Stonehenge!)
>
> He concludes that no such situation is imaginable. But then--he points out
> that the mere fact that something is unimaginable does nothing to prevent
> it from actually happening, because precisely this situation obtains with
> speech--that is, the "ideal, complete" form is present alongside the most
> basic forms and help to guide their first stumbling steps.
>
> As T.S. Eliot says:
>
> In my beginning is my end. In succession
> Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended
> Are removed, destroyed, restored or in their place
> Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass (East Coker)
>
> David Kellogg
> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
>
>
> On 3 July 2014 03:41, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I am seeking to find a quotation from Vygotsky where he asserts that the
> > development of language offers a general model for human development more
> > generally. My fantasy, or can someone help me find it?
> > mike
> >
>