[Xmca-l] Re: Understanding/changing "something"

[Peter Smagorinsky]

https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/archives/why-study-history-%281998%29 is the best I could find.

Obama campaigned in 2008 on a "hope and change" theme, which is different from "change and understand." To which Hilary Clinton replied "I have 35 years of experience, fighting for real change"

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces+smago=uga.edu@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2015 2:09 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Understanding/changing "something"

For a current writing project I have been led to think about the fact that Kurt Lewin is widely quoted as telling his students and colleagues that "if you want to understand something, try to change it."

I have long associated this idea with the notion that if you want to understand HISTORY, try to change IT. But either I am reading Lewin into Marxism, or hallucinating. Can it really be true that no Great Leader has ever said that you want to understand history (a particular
"something") try to change it?

There are well known major influences of Lewin on both Vygotsky and Luria that might be illuminated by this inquiry, one way or the other.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

mike

-- 

All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible. N. McLean, *A River Runs Through it*