[Xmca-l] Re: Thought and language as oscillating and pulsing [or not]

[Martin John Packer]

There is a growing literature on Shpet, but very little of his own work is available in English. His book 'Appearance & Sense' is translated (and I have a copy in case anyone is interested), but this was early work, introducing Husserl to Russian readers (and early Husserl at that: Shpet studied with Husserl in 1912-13). Shpet's more explicitly hermeneutic work, in particular his writing on the inner form of the word, has not been translated, to my knowledge. Yet the connection with, and presumably the influence on, LSV is evident. Around 1916 Vygotsky attended Shpet’s seminar on "internal form of the word" at Shanyavsky University, and the two were both teaching at the Pedology Department of Moscow University in the late 1920s. In the early 1920s Shpet organized the 'ethnic psychology' section at Moscow University.  Hence my interest in his work, and my suggestion that getting more translated would be very interesting.

Martin

On Jan 24, 2015, at 5:21 PM, Martin John Packer <mpacker@uniandes.edu.co> wrote:

> Got it!  :)
> 
> On Jan 24, 2015, at 4:58 PM, Ed Wall <ewall@umich.edu> wrote:
> 
>> You possibly might also be interested in 
>> 
>> The Role of Hermeneutic Phenomenology in Grounding the Affirmative Philosophy of Gustav Gustavovich Shpet
>> V. G. Kuznetsov
>> Russian Studies in Philosophy 37 (4):62-90 (1999)
>> 
>> Ed
>> 
>> On Jan 24, 2015, at  2:49 PM, Martin John Packer wrote:
>> 
>>> This is the information I have, Henry.
>>> 
>>> Freiberger-Sheikholeslami, E. (1984). Gustav G. Shpet: Hermeneutical logic and philosophical semiotics. In J. Deely (Ed.), Semiotics 1984 (pp. 381-391). Bloomington: Semiotic Society of America.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Martin
>>> 
>>> On Jan 24, 2015, at 2:37 PM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Martin,
>>>> Thank you very muchfor the article on Sheet. I think the readings and dialog generated will help me understand much better Vygotsky and his context by getting a better grip on the long view, through the eyes of hermeneutics. Do you know when the Freiberger-Sheeikholes article was written?
>>>> Henry
>>>> 
>>>>> On Jan 24, 2015, at 10:26 AM, Martin John Packer <mpacker@uniandes.edu.co> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am sure that there are differences between LSV and Shpet, as Larry points out. But there are also striking similarities. Here is a little background:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Martin
>>>>> 
>>>>> <Freiberger-Sheikholeslami 1985 Gustav G. Shpet He.pdf>
>>>>> On Jan 24, 2015, at 11:39 AM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Martin will be sending us an article on Shpet.
>>>>>> I therefore did some background exploration and discovered that Shpet and
>>>>>> Vygotsky differed on the notion of "oscillation".
>>>>>> Vygotsky believed thought and language oscillated while Shpet disagreed.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Zinchenko clarifies Vygotsky's understanding in this paragraph
>>>>>> that Zinchenko wrote in his chapter "Thought and Word, the Approaches of L.
>>>>>> S. Vygotsky and G. G. Shpet": It uses the metaphor of rain [which I
>>>>>> associated with the other thread on rain]
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> "Thought and word are no less polyphonic than mind.  Yet, there is a
>>>>>> long way to go to arrive at this conclusion.  And it is hard to
>>>>>> overestimate the input of Shpet and Vygotsky, along with Aleksandr Potebnya.
>>>>>> Out of all the polyphony of mind and thought, out of all the various
>>>>>> possibilities of origins, Shpet and Vygotsky   gave their preference to the
>>>>>> word, although they understood it differently.  Let us start from
>>>>>> Vygotsky's metaphorical description: *What is simultaneous in thought is
>>>>>> successive in language.*  It would be possible to compare a thought with a
>>>>>> cloud that showers a rain of words.  This is why the transition from
>>>>>> thought to language is a very complicated process of *dismemberment* of a
>>>>>> thought and its recreation in a word.  On the next page, Vygotsky wrote,
>>>>>> 'continuing this picturesque comparison, we should liken the motivation of
>>>>>> thought to the wind that sets the clouds in motion.'  If something can *pour
>>>>>> itself, *it means that it already exists.  Therefore we can understand the
>>>>>> given metaphor as saying that thought, already existing is *expressed *in a
>>>>>> word"  [emphasis in the original]
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> This quote draws attention to Vygotsky perceiving *oscillation *behind the
>>>>>> movement of thought and language. Shpet did not see thought and language as
>>>>>> oscillating.  Zinchenko's goal in his article is not to place the
>>>>>> approaches of Shpet and Vygotsky in opposition but to present them as
>>>>>> mutually complimentary approaches.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I hope to learn from others on the complexity of the notions of
>>>>>> oscillating movement of thought and language situated within words.
>>>>>> Polyphonic notions
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
>