Re: [xmca] What Does the Russian Say?

From: Mike Cole <lchcmike who-is-at gmail.com>
Date: Thu Sep 18 2008 - 20:27:03 PDT

Access to the Russian originals from which the various translators
were working would be helpful..
perhaps the real Russian knowers will send along for discussion.
mike

On 9/19/08, David Kellogg <vaughndogblack@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Terribly sorry, Russophiles! That went off by accident. Here's what I MEANT
> to ask:
> Our study group here in Seoul is trying to create a new Korean translation
> of
> "Thinking and Speech". We're VERY weak in Russian so we're
> trying to get at the original by comparing translations, especially Norman
> Minick's "Thinking and Speech" and Luciano Mecacci's
> "Pensiero e Linguaggio".
>
> And that's the problem. At the beginning of Chapter Two, Minick's got
> this:
>
> "The research of Jean Piaget represents a new stage in the devleopment of
> theory concerning the speech and thinking of the child; a news stage in the
> development of theory concerning the child's logic andworld view. His work
> is of substantial historical significance.Beginning with a new persepctive
> on
> the problem, and using the clinical method he developed, Piaget ahs carried
> out
> profoundly insightful investigations of the child's logic. Piaget himself,
> in concluding the second of his works, clearly and precisely noted the
> significance of his approach in the study of this old problem.
> "While Piaget's studies have created new directions..."
>
> Now, here's what Maccaci's got:
>
> "The research of Jean Piaget represents a new stage in the devleopment of
> theory concerning the speech and thinking of the child; a news stage in the
> development of theory concerning the child's logic andworld view. His work
> is of substantial historical significance.Beginning with a new persepctive
> on
> the problem, and using the clinical method he developed, Piaget ahs carried
> out
> profoundly insightful investigations of the child's logic. Piaget himself,
> in concluding the second of his works, clearly and precisely noted the
> significance of his approach in the study of this old problem.
>
> Piaget himself, in concluding the second of his workers (i.e. "Reasoning and
> Judgement of the Child" says this: "We therefore believe—and we affirm—that
> one day we shall be able to put the thought of the child on the same plane
> as the thought of a normal, civilized adult, the thought of the primitive
> mentality defined by Levy Bruhl, the autistic and symbolic thought of Freud
> and his followers, and the "morbid consciousness" of Charles Blondel." (p.
> 408). In reality, this first work (i.e. "Language and Thought of the
> Child"), for its historical significance for the development of the hidden
> side of psychological thought, must be placed alongside and compared with
> "Mental functioning in inferior societies" by Levy-Bruhl, "The
> interpretation of dreams" by Freud, and "The morbid conscience" by Blondel.
> Moreover, we observe between these findings in various fields of scientific
> psychology not only an external likeness,
> determined by their level of historical significance, but a profound and
> intimate internal affinity, a common essence in the philosophical and
> psychological tendencies that they contain and embody. Not without reason
> does Piaget apologize in an exaggerated manner for the research and theories
> of these three works and their authors."
>
> "While Piaget's studies have created new directions..."
>
>
> Apparently those words of Vygotsky's in the middle have never appeared in
> English. But you can see there's a BIG hunk missing,and that the cut does
> not at all improve the text: in fact it makes the first part of the text
> much more pro-Piagetian than Vygotsky meant.
>
> What's going on? Does anyone know why this was cut in the 1956 edition and
> the 1982 edition?
>
> David Kellogg
> Seoul National University of Education
>
>
>
> Dear xmca Russophones:
>
>
> But here's Mecacci (I'm translating roughly from the Italian):
>
> Piaget himself, in concluding the second of his workers (i.e. "Reasoning
> and Judgement of the Child" says this: "We therefore believe—and we
> affirm—that one day we shall be able to put the thought of the child on the
> same plane as the thought of a normal, civilized adult, the thought of the
> primitive mentality defined by Levy Bruhl, the autistic and symbolic thought
> of Freud and his followers, and the "morbid consciousness" of Charles
> Blondel." (p. 408). In reality, this first work (i.e. "Language and Thought
> of the Child"), for its historical significance for the development of the
> hidden side of psychological thought, must be placed alongside and compared
> with "Mental functioning in inferior societies" by Levy-Bruhl, "The
> interpretation of dreams" by Freud, and "The morbid conscience" by Blondel.
> Moreover, we observe between these findings in various fields of scientific
> psychology not only an external likeness,
> determined by their level of historical significance, but a profound and
> intimate internal affinity, a common essence in the philosophical and
> psychological tendencies that they contain and embody. Not without reason
> does Piaget apologize in an exaggerated manner for the research and theories
> of these three works and their authors."
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Sep 18 21:13 PDT 2008

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