At 12:47 PM -0700 4/20/01, Paul H.Dillon wrote:
>The name rings a bell but I've never read him. The idea of developing
>psychological concepts out of phylogenetic origins is unclear to me.
>Doesn't "phylogenetic" refer to species differentiation? The processes I'm
>indicating all are within the same species and definitely part of the
>cultural-historical dimension. I don't think anyone who rigorously applies
>Marx's ideas about the evolution of social formation could reduce psychology
>to phylogenetic speciation.
What Holzkamp does is he begins with thinking about early hominids,
suggesting that they were still environmentally determined in their
actions. Then, as they begin to use tools, and especially when they
begin to divide labor (Leont'ev's example of hunting, including those
who push through the thickets and those who kill waiting outside),
there are advantages for the collective life form, which are still
selected and advantages through evolutionary processes. Then there
comes a moment of (qualitative) inversion ("Umschlag") when cultural
processes take over and evolutionary do no longer apply. Individuals
survive not because they are stronger, in good health, etc. but
survival is now that of society. Division of labor allows individuals
to contribute in various ways, even if they no longer search for food
or farm . . . Subjective experience and collective experience,
subjective possibilities and collective possibilities become
dialectically related processes, encouraged to change by
contradictions. His use of contradictions and dialectics is very much
that developed by Il'enkov, who wrote just before and
contemporaneously with Holzkamp in the 60s and 79s.
Michael
------------------------------------------------------ Wolff-Michael Roth Lansdowne Professor Applied Cognitive Science MacLaurin Building A548 Tel: (250) 721-7885 University of Victoria FAX: (250) 472-4616 Victoria, BC, V8W 3N4 Email: mroth@uvic.ca http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/ ----------------------------------------------------
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