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Re: Fwd: [xmca] A Failure of Communication



Larry, picking up on a theme introduced by Mike earlier - we have to ask: what is the Ur-Act, the basic, elementary act of human (intellectual) life? I know of only two answers to this question, relevant to concepts.

The abstract answer given by mediavel logic, Linnaeus, the "psychology of concepts," all the stars of present-day continental philosophy is:

   pidgeon-holing.

The concrete answer given by Hegel, Vygotsky, Activity Theory, Thomas Kuhn and me is:

   problem-solving.

This is what creates a line of development, Larry.

Andy
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
http://ucsd.academia.edu/AndyBlunden


Larry Purss wrote:
Andy
your comment:
"Ideal typical path of development" *points to* distinct settings (e.g. natural science, everyday life at home, school, etc.) which is indeed close to the idea of "genre," but "ideal typical path of development" is after all about *paths of development*, ideal ones at that, not settings, projects, theories, domains, social groups, frames, or anything else. :) Andy, if the focus remains on *typical paths of development* OF genres, OF distinct settings OF the existential life world, is it possible to have a conversation within the multi-verse of *romantic science* As I understand the focus on *typical* is *scientific* the paths of development may be romantic and implicate effective history. I am circling around your invitation to have conversations that are interdiciplinary. Simon Critchley, exploring the development of Continental Philosophy wrote about Heidegger's idea of *an existential CONCEPTION of science* Critchley commented, "This would show how the practices of the natural sciences arise out of life-world practices, and that the life-world practices are not simply reducible to natural scientific explanation" Andy, your specific project to develop awareness of the *typical paths* of develop of concept use and transformation through time is emerging within a particular tradition or genre of discourse [within effective history]. I am playfully inquiring if it may be possible to *play* [a word you would not use but points to a hermeneutical genre] on a larger *field of play* that *hears* and acknowledges your voice. I will bring the discussion back to the paper under discussion and the fuzzy boundaries between spontaneous and scientific [systematically 'true' organized] concepts. Andy the path of development FROM spontaneous TO scientific concepts seems to have deen articulated within a genre. However, this is not a dis-interested scientific development. Mike pointed to developmental praxis as centrally concerning *social goods, including moral goods*. Within our developing understanding of ideal paths of concept formation how is this emerging understanding circling back to exploring how our *hearing* gives *voice* to the other*? {Which I suggest is one way to view the development of psychology as a project within a shared moral compass} Larry



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