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Re: [xmca] request for removal of some problems
Haydi,
I suspect - and Andy will be able to confirm or deny this - that the reason
the text was not put on MIA in full was because of copyright issues with the
translation. The text runs from page 233-343 in the Collected Works
It is easy enough for one of us to provide you with a copy of the full text
by snail mail (or electronically if anyone has scanned the whole thing). I
could just copy my own copy but it is covered in annotations and i don't
have easy access to the original. But if nobody else has a better copy, I'd
be happy to do that - contact me off-list.
Best wishes,
Bruce
----- Original Message -----
From: "Haydi Zulfei" <haydizulfei@yahoo.com>
To: "Culture ActivityeXtended Mind" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 9:11 AM
Subject: Re: [xmca] request for removal of some problems
Dear Andy,
Thank you very much for the attention paid to my request .
This is the said sentence :
[[Here, on the first page, that is ??????, the argumentation might have
ended: ]]
My intention was , in fact , to have some authorization for a deletion or a
change whatever . Seems , as one Russian friend said, the origin is not
well-formed either . Then the loyalty of the translator seems to have gone
too far .
Dear Steve ,
Thank you ! You've gone right to the point and provided enlightening
clarifications .
And my taste goes something like this : [[ It is just here , on the very
first page of Luria's article that one can say the argumentation might have
ended . ]]
For such and similar reasons , it seems the " crisis " has got to be very
very complicated to be understood . One big problem seems to be that the
boundaries between what he agrees with and what he disagrees with are
intermingled . Then , I won't refrain from ads-on without focusing on the
main ideas and original thoughts . No deconstruction at all which is not ,
in fact , my authorization and liabilities .
You say , " as you know " about the Plenum CW .
No , dear Steve , the problem is I have no access to the sources
unfortunately . And that's why your help , others' help , are considered to
be more than what it seems to be .
As google says , someone has put the intended pages in 14 vertical column in
blue ; 1 takes you to page 6 ; 2 to page 257 ; and it continues up to 14
which corresponds to page 269 of the said source .
Now because I'm translating the text , these traces and references seem to
be very enlightening . Simply , I like to find the thread of which this
could have been one link ( message ) if I'm guessing right . Why has it been
scanned ? What was the discussion ? Any big memory ?
I also made a change into the previous stuff ; I'm not sure what the xmca
machine will do with the changes .
Best
Haydi
--- On Mon, 6/15/09, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
From: Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>
Subject: Re: [xmca] request for removal of some problems
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Monday, June 15, 2009, 12:41 PM
Haydi,
I receive messages from xmca in plain text, so I cannot see what you claim
is in a large font. I am sure others have the same problem. Can you send
just the excerpt you wanted in large text?
Andy
Haydi Zulfei wrote:
Dear all , This was formerly written to a very close friend who is very
busy with his very different jobs . Now is there anybody to help me with
the problem ? For so-called a translation ! of Vygotsky's " The Crisis "
into my native language I reached chapter 7 , page 6 of 15 of the
Marxist.Org Version of the Work . And you can have the rest of the story
below : The sentence in focus has been presented in larger fonts , in
particular , what signification and function the " that is " phrase within
the sentence , allocates to itself ?
Thanks a lot , dear ... ! This is the stuff : Note please here for me the
syntax and the WELL-formedness of the sentence is more complicated than
its APPROPRIATENESS ; though it's very obvious the very syntax spoils the
appropiacy . Thank you very much !
In the article by Luria [1925, p. 55], for example, psychoanalysis is
presented as “a system of monistic psychology,” whose methodology
“coincides with the methodology” of Marxism. In order to prove this a
number of most naive transformations of both systems are carried out as a
result of which they “coincide.” Let us briefly look at these
transformations. First of all, Marxism is situated in the general
methodology of the epoch, alongside Darwin, Comte, Pavlov, and Einstein,
who together create the general methodological foundations of the epoch.
The role and importance of each of these authors is, of course, deeply and
fundamentally different, and by its very nature the role of dialectical
materialism is totally different from all of them. Not to see this means
to deduce methodology from the sum total of “great scientific
achievements”. As soon as one reduces all these names and Marxism to a
common denominator it is not difficult to
unite Marxism with any “great scientific achievement,” because this was
presupposed: the“coincidence” looked for is in the presupposition and not
in the conclusion. The“fundamental methodology of the epoch” consists of
the sum total of the discoveries made by Pavlov, Einstein, etc. Marxism is
one of these discoveries, which belong to the “group of principles
indispensable for quite a number of closely-related sciences”
[[Here, on the first page, that is ??????, the argumentation might have
ended: ]]
after Einstein one would only have to mention Freud, for he is also a “great
scientific achievement” and, thus, a participant in the “general
methodological foundations of the epoch.” But one must have much uncritical
trust in scientific reputation to deduce the methodology of an epoch from
the sum total of famous names.
There is no unitary basic methodology of the epoch. What we have is a
system of fighting, deeply hostile, mutually exclusive, methodological
principles and eachtheory – whether by Pavlov or Einstein – has its own
methodological merit. To distill a general methodology of the epoch and to
dissolve Marxism in it means to transform not only the appearance, but
also the essence of Marxism.
But also Freudian theory is inescapably subjected to the same type of
transformations. Freud himself would be amazed to learn that
psychoanalysis is a systemof monistic psychology and that
“methodologically he carries on... historical materialism” [Fridman, 1925,
p. 159]. Not a single psychoanalytic journal would, of course, print the
papers by Luria and Fridman. That is highly important. For a very peculiar
situation has evolved: Freud and his school have never declared themselves
to be monists, materialists, dialecticians, or followers of historical
materialism. But they are told: you are both the first, and the second,
and the third. You yourselves don’t know who you are. Of course, one can
imagine such a situation, it is entirely possible. But then it is
necessary to give an exact explanation of the methodological foundations
of this doctrine, as conceived of and developed by its authors, and then a
proof of the refutation of these
foundations
and to explain by what miracle and on what foundations psychoanalysis
developed a system of methodology which is foreign to its authors. Instead
of this, the identity of the two systems is declared by a simple
formal-logical superposition of the characteristics – without a single
analysis of Freud’s basic concepts, without critically weighing and
elucidating his assumptions and starting points, without a critical
examination of the genesis of his ideas, even without simply inquiring how
he himself conceives of the philosophical foundations of his system
But, maybe, this formal-logical characterization of the two systems is
correct? We have already seen how one distills Marxism’s share in the
general methodology of the epoch, in which everything is roughly and
naively reduced to a common denominator: if both Einstein and Pavlov and
Marx belong to science, then they must have a common foundation. But
Freudian theory suffers even more distortions in this process. I will not
even mention how Zalkind (1924) mechanically deprives it of its central
idea. In his article it is passed over in silence, which is also note
worthy. But take the monism of psychoanalysis – Freud would contest it.
The article mentions that he turned to philosophical monism, but where, in
which words, in connection with what? Is finding empirical unity in some
group of facts really always monism? On the contrary, Freud always
accepted the mental, the unconscious as a special force which cannot be
reduced to something else. Further,
why is this monism materialistic in the philosophical sense? After all,
medical materialism which acknowledges the influence of different organs
etc. upon mental structures is still very far from philosophical
materialism. In the philosophy of Marxism this concept has a specific,
primarily epistemological sense and it is precisely in his epistemology
that Freud stands on idealist philosophical grounds. For it is a fact,
which is not refuted and not even considered by the authors of the
“coincidences,” that Freud’s doctrine of the primary role of blind drives,
of the unconscious as being reflected in consciousness in a distorted
fashion, goes back directly to Schopenhauer’s idealistic metaphysics of
the will and the idea. Freud [1920/1973, pp. 49-50] himself remarks that
in his extreme conclusions he is in the harbor of Schopenhauer. But his
basic assumptions as well as the main lines of his system are connected
with the philosophy of the
great
pessimist, as even the simplest analysis can demonstrate.
The other problem is when I reached here " Thus , we see where Freud and
his system have come from and where they are heading for : from
Schopenhauer and Lipps to Kolnay and mass psychology " . I searched google
for " Kolnay and mass psychology " . Among the alternatives ( results ) ,
I reached for a link which apparently belongs to
http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/crisis/6_dir/6_s3.htm
Now , how can I locate this in the lchc archieve to learn about the whole
story in the past ? Is there the possibility of reaching for the whole
pages of the work ? Is it something different from the Marxist.Org version
? The page numbers says this must be the case . Now , the more I try , the
less I succeed in remembering anything from the past . You see ! It must
be the problem of age !!
Best
Haydi
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