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

[Greg Thompson]

Mike,
Seems like the way you put that could be interpreted in a rather nasty
fashion.
To wit, does what you said mean that the Vai or the Yanomami don't have
consciousness bc they don't have scientific concepts?
-greg

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 3:25 PM mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:

> Hi Anthony
>
> I understand that to mean that humans who have not achieved
> scientific/real concepts do not have conscious awareness.
>
> What am I missing?
> Mike
>
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 1:06 PM Anthony Barra <anthonymbarra@gmail.com>
> 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!Quf6qyGvNGvBoVtCkwSjtnSf6TooVJ1Vt86IFaloIYYetMJledD29V6mU9Lanc41jH9ZxA$ 
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/l41nsz__;!!Mih3wA!RbTsEBrr1M-JQ2E0Cza-8aoA440vsBAtR7DQicuejOZvYN1AOyytgVid7plmKnYKHKx2jw$>
>> )
>>
>> I believe that many people -- including many teachers -- would benefit
>> from answers to this question, preferably multiple answers. With
>> permission, I will nicely edit and add your response to this growing list
>> of asked-and-answered questions: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/451nsz__;!!Mih3wA!Quf6qyGvNGvBoVtCkwSjtnSf6TooVJ1Vt86IFaloIYYetMJledD29V6mU9Lanc7ISk8niQ$ 
>> <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!TggWICG1J2w02_x0SWKzYW-4ftmVOZbkZFfs4G9fjlQAO_5Rcb22DdO_08zpANlVawtVtw$>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!Quf6qyGvNGvBoVtCkwSjtnSf6TooVJ1Vt86IFaloIYYetMJledD29V6mU9Lanc4rp6FSXg$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://culturalpraxis.net__;!!Mih3wA!TggWICG1J2w02_x0SWKzYW-4ftmVOZbkZFfs4G9fjlQAO_5Rcb22DdO_08zpANlZapN6Hg$>
> Re-generating CHAT Website: re-generatingchat.com
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://re-generatingchat.com__;!!Mih3wA!TggWICG1J2w02_x0SWKzYW-4ftmVOZbkZFfs4G9fjlQAO_5Rcb22DdO_08zpANnwRjh-9A$>
> Archival resources website: lchc.ucsd.edu.
> Narrative history of LCHC:  lchcautobio.ucsd.edu.
>
>
>
>

-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
WEBSITE: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!Quf6qyGvNGvBoVtCkwSjtnSf6TooVJ1Vt86IFaloIYYetMJledD29V6mU9Lanc6IkID2UQ$ 
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