[Xmca-l] Re: Leontyev's activities

[Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>]

On 9 August 2013 14:57, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> I don't have any doubt that needs are produced. 25 years ago no-one needed
> a computer. Now it seems that everyone needs them. I don't see you r
> objection to this, Huw?
>
>
Well, if you consider needs as primal (vital) such things as computers and
the languages people speak are simply ways to meet such needs.

>From a Marxian social perspective computing is interesting in this respect
in that the needs met by the first generation workers is qualitatively
different to the management saturated situation we have now.  i.e. on the
cusp of technological practice workers are more free from the tyranny of
alienation.


> Yes, I mean "what comes first." "From what must science begin?" has long
> been the fundamental question for science. Your conceptual starting point
> determines, to a great extent, what you can produce, so long as you proceed
> logically, of course. I am talking here about the reconstruction of reality
> in science, of course, not the perception of reality or reality itself,
> which are entirely different questions.
>

ok


>
> Andy
>
> Huw Lloyd wrote:
>
>
>>
>> On 9 August 2013 02:03, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:
>> ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     Integral yes. But as ANL himself points out *human* needs are
>>     themseleves *products* of human acitivity. People only need
>>     hammers because someone has produced nails. In circular processes
>>     like this, the question is: what concept is fundamental? Cf Dewey
>>     on the reflex arc.
>>
>>
>> Are needs produced?  Or is this simply different objects to fashion new
>> motives that address the need?  i.e. social change could expose new needs,
>> but that's not the same as creating them.
>>
>> And why is fundamental necessary?  Do you mean what came (comes) first?
>>
>> Best,
>> Huw
>>
>>     Andy
>>
>>     Huw Lloyd wrote:
>>
>>         ...
>>
>>         Re theory of human needs, needs seem fairly integral to
>>         studying activity developmentally, no?
>>
>>         Best,
>>         Huw
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
> --
> ------------------------------**------------------------------**
> ------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
> http://marxists.academia.edu/**AndyBlunden<http://marxists.academia.edu/AndyBlunden>
>
>