Dear Mike, Dale et al,
First I likely need to purge myself of other connotations and
denotations of "objects" that have gained ascendance with regard to
computer programming, e.g., object-oriented programming, which,
nonetheless may have some instructive insights. Here is a site with
some basics:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/concepts/
Just quickly, in this view "objects" have states (variables) and
behaviors (methods) and a class is the general form of an object (e.g.,
"bicycle" as a general category) while an "instance" is a specific
instance of the object (e.g., my bicycle which is red, 10 gear, etc).
So, what comes to mind is Vygotsky's view of words as general categories
and the mediation of meaning (or "instances" if you will) in situated
contexts (or some linguists might say in "speech acts"). I'm muddling
around a bit with this view of objects vis a vis activity theory.
But, back to the text. While I was also attracted to the phrase Dale
highlighted: "a complex, multifaceted, ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE OF AN
ACTIVITY that evolves over time." I'm not sure it does the trick for me.
In particular, is it really an organizing "principle"? And is it really
"unitary"? This attractive phrasing seems to try to resolve the tension
by allowing for complexity and multifactedness but then taming these as
adjectives to a unitary "organizing principle" What I do appreciate, of
course, is the notion of it changing over time, the acknowledgement of a
developmental stance.
I tend to think of messiness and of multiple participants having and
negotiating multiple "objects" within an activity system (in the sense
that they objectify the activity itself from their own vantage point,
the sense they make of it, and they have their own objectives and
purposes for participation, which in turn shape the activity and affect
their own and everyone else's objectification).
So in what sense is it a "principle" which I think of more as an ethical
choice or rule-based?
In Peace,
K.
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