[Xmca-l] Re: Help with Russian translation

[HENRY SHONERD]

David,
Would you agree that this “subjective activeness” is likely to be connected to the network of enterprises and/or life projects that Vera and Andy, respectively, construe in documenting and reflecting on the work of highly creative people, especially in collaboration with others? Like this chat. Part of the network. Distributed cognition with active zones, attractors that play out on the stage. Forgive the blather. 
Henry

> On Aug 6, 2015, at 5:04 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Andy:
> 
> I think this somewhat over-literal translation might help:
> 
> "The real (or the actual, factual--DK) basis of the human personality
> consists of the totality of its social-in-nature relations to the world;
> however, these are relations which are realized, and realized in their
> activeness, or more precisely, in the totality of their multi-formed
> activities.
> 
> We have in view the subjective activeness which is the source of the
> "units" for the psychological analysis of the personality: not actions, not
> operations, and not psycho-physiological functions or building-blocks of
> these functions; the latter characterize activity and not directly
> personality."
> 
> I'm cheating a little here, both by being over-literal and also by
> distinguishing between subjective activeness and the activities which
> realize it. But I think that is Vygotsky's intention. First of all, to
> identify the basis of human personality in relations with the world taken
> as a whole, and then to distinguish between the personality and the
> specific actions that apparently make it up but which cannot exhaust its
> potential.
> 
> David Kellogg
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 7:01 AM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Andy,
>> Sorry, I am absolutely unqualified to translate this! But I am wondering
>> if the “life projects” Vygotsky had in mind were akin to what Vera
>> John-Steiner has called in her book Creative Collaboration “network of
>> enterprises” and what you call “life projects” in your intro the recent
>> book on collaborative projects that you edited and to which Vera has
>> contributed. I doubt this helps with the translation, but I am hoping that
>> I am on the right path to understanding the passage.
>> Henry
>> 
>>> On Aug 6, 2015, at 6:28 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Could some of our wonderful Russophiles criticise my translation of the
>> following excerpt:
>>> 
>>>      *Р*еальным базисом личности человека является
>>>      совокупность его общественных по своей природе
>>>      отношений к миру, но отношений, которые реализуются,
>>>      а они реализуются его деятельностью, точнее,
>>>      совокупностью его многообразных деятельностей.
>>> 
>>>      Имеются в виду именно деятельности субъекта, которые
>>>      и являются исходными "единицами" психологического
>>>      анализа личности, а не действия, не операции, не
>>>      психофизиологические функции или блоки этих функций;
>>>      последние характеризуют деятельность, а не
>>>      непосредственно личность.
>>> 
>>> which I have translated as:
>>> 
>>>      The real basis of a person’s personality is the
>>>      totality of their life-projects, which are social by
>>>      nature, but life-projects which are realised, and
>>>      they are realised by their activity, or more
>>>      precisely, by the totality of their various
>>>      activities.Here we have in mind in particular the
>>>      activities of the subject that are initial “units”
>>>      of the psychological analysis of personality ‒ not
>>>      actions, not operations, not psychophysiological
>>>      functions or the blocks of these functions, which
>>>      characterise activity, but not directly personality.
>>> 
>>> But there are parts of this which are really unclear to me, and perhaps
>> a better translation would clear it up. The standard English translation
>> does not help.
>>> 
>>> Andy
>>> --
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>> 
>> 
>>