[Xmca-l] Re: "conscious awareness enters through the gate" (a Participation Question)

[mike cole]

Krupskaya

On Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 6:35 AM Anthony Barra <anthonymbarra@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the endorsement, Andy.
>
> And please, feel free to jump in again. (BTW, we now have an audio-only
> option, for easier downloading and on-the-go listening:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/7n3nsz__;!!Mih3wA!XGLW8kJeonuG9kaVIqzZGpd5gaHVQq5HJ_TJFfdiC5jOmNp0MgFKVkVPsJYFLYDL3fAVbQ$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/7n3nsz__;!!Mih3wA!UpNDh2SuTGnq9M1EnvMT-VtliHnUd3ya7fk0uZkNlLzTzcyDRVWzHHRCIucmy20J_VnBCQ$> --
> note that Seasons 3 and 4 feature the short snippets and "Answered
> Questions")
>
> Anthony
>
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 9:28 PM Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:
>
>> Can I just vouch for Anthony's project. He does a fine job of editing and
>> I think his collection of tiny videos make a real contribution to
>> Vygotsky's legacy. A diversity of voices help, so please! someone else
>> stump up to join Anthony's crew.
>>
>> Andy
>> ------------------------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> Hegel for Social Movements
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!Spj7ybW_LUoFXDv2iVA1TKJKPAjhKyftAGi76oylQzObUE6aRnFXF53u2cffhj_WKhBqiw$>
>> Home Page
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!Spj7ybW_LUoFXDv2iVA1TKJKPAjhKyftAGi76oylQzObUE6aRnFXF53u2cffhj_9df2EcQ$>
>> On 12/08/2020 6:03 am, Anthony Barra wrote:
>>
>> Good afternoon,
>>
>> This is a question -- and an invitation:
>>
>> First the question: *What do you understand the passage below (at the
>> bottom of this email) to mean?*
>>
>> Second, the invitation: *How about sharing your thoughts in short video
>> form?* It's quite enjoyable (ask Andy; ask David; etc) -- and it's also
>> helpful, not only to me but to anyone watching or listening. (Here is the
>> question again, in video form: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/l41nsz__;!!Mih3wA!XGLW8kJeonuG9kaVIqzZGpd5gaHVQq5HJ_TJFfdiC5jOmNp0MgFKVkVPsJYFLYDRUWzR5g$ 
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/l41nsz__;!!Mih3wA!RbTsEBrr1M-JQ2E0Cza-8aoA440vsBAtR7DQicuejOZvYN1AOyytgVid7plmKnYKHKx2jw$>
>> )
>>
>> I believe that many people -- including many teachers -- would benefit
>> from answers to this question, preferably multiple answers. With
>> permission, I will nicely edit and add your response to this growing list
>> of asked-and-answered questions: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/451nsz__;!!Mih3wA!XGLW8kJeonuG9kaVIqzZGpd5gaHVQq5HJ_TJFfdiC5jOmNp0MgFKVkVPsJYFLYCeXgXDOg$ 
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/451nsz__;!!Mih3wA!RbTsEBrr1M-JQ2E0Cza-8aoA440vsBAtR7DQicuejOZvYN1AOyytgVid7plmKnayu3KfOQ$>
>> Thanks for considering it, and note that we don't care about perfectionism
>> here; it's mostly for fun.
>>
>> *Here is the passage in question*, from *Thinking and Speech*, Ch. 6,
>> pp. 190-1:
>>
>>> "To perceive something in a different way means to acquire new
>>> potentials for acting with respect to it. At the chess board, to see
>>> differently is to play differently. By generalizing the process of activity
>>> itself, I acquire the potential for new relationships with it. To speak
>>> crudely, it is as if this process has been isolated from the general
>>> activity of consciousness. I am conscious of the fact that I remember. I
>>> make my own remembering the object of consciousness. An isolation arises
>>> here. In a certain sense, any generalization or abstraction isolates its
>>> object. This is why conscious awareness – understood as generalization –
>>> leads directly to mastery.
>>>
>>
>>
>>> *Thus, the foundation of conscious awareness is the generalization or
>>> abstraction of the mental processes, which leads to their mastery*.
>>> Instruction has a decisive role in this process. Scientific concepts have a
>>> unique relationship to the object. This relationship is mediated through
>>> other concepts that themselves have an internal hierarchical system of
>>> interrelationships. It is apparently in this domain of the scientific
>>> concept that conscious awareness of concepts or the generalization and
>>> mastery of concepts emerges for the first time. And once a new structure of
>>> generalization has arisen in one sphere of thought, it can – like any
>>> structure – be transferred without training to all remaining domains of
>>> concepts and thought. Thus, *conscious awareness enters through the
>>> gate opened up by the scientific concept*."
>>
>>
>> What do you understand this passage to mean?
>>
>> Thanks 😎
>>
>> Anthony Barra
>>
>> P.S. My first encounter with *Thinking and Speech* was very difficult,
>> even with the help of talented classmates and a smart professor.
>> Thankfully, three online videos from Nikolai Veresov, presented not as a
>> definitive reading but as a general map of the book's terrain, were really
>> so helpful and encouraging for me. If any videos I'm posting turn out to be
>> similarly useful (as a number of people have told me), that's great. So
>> thank you again to anyone interested in participating.
>>
>>
>> --

I[image: Angelus Novus] <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus__;!!Mih3wA!XGLW8kJeonuG9kaVIqzZGpd5gaHVQq5HJ_TJFfdiC5jOmNp0MgFKVkVPsJYFLYD51Jdz7g$ >The
Angel's View of History

It is only in a social context that subjectivism and objectivism,
spiritualism and materialism, activity and passivity cease to be
antinomies, and thus cease to exist as such antinomies. The resolution of
the theoretical contradictions is possible only through practical means,
only through the practical energy of humans. (Marx, 1844).
Cultural Praxis Website: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://culturalpraxis.net__;!!Mih3wA!XGLW8kJeonuG9kaVIqzZGpd5gaHVQq5HJ_TJFfdiC5jOmNp0MgFKVkVPsJYFLYAilqkt1g$ 
Re-generating CHAT Website: re-generatingchat.com
Archival resources website: lchc.ucsd.edu.
Narrative history of LCHC:  lchcautobio.ucsd.edu.
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