Re: Passion and rationality

Robin Harwood (HARWOOD who-is-at UConnVM.UConn.Edu)
Fri, 05 Apr 96 22:38:23 EST

Gordon wrote:
> Rather, what makes it social is that the
>change takes place in and through the participation in joint activity and
>involves the appropriation of modes of acting and thinking that are enacted
>in the interaction and mediated by artifacts that have an interpersonal,
>cultural - and not simply an individual - function.

Gordon, the second part of this ("involves the appropriation of modes
of acting and thinking...") makes good sense to me, but I am still
struggling with the notion of "joint activity" as it applies to the
lecture situation. If individual listeners listening silently (and
individually) to a lecture constitutes "joint activity," then it
becomes difficult for me to imagine any situation which would NOT
qualify as a joint activity, and if every human action is by definition
a joint activity, then it begins to feel like a not very useful concept
to me. What would NOT be a joint activity? And how would that
differ from what we find happening in the lecture course?
Robin