Edelman & the individual
Phillip Allen White (pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu)
Thu, 9 Nov 1995 09:59:52 -0700 (MST)
Reflecting on Bill's and Gordon's contributions to defining the
role of the individual in an activity system has reminded me of Gerald
Edelman's _Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_ wherein he describes each
individual person as genetically different from any other person, so that
whatever the experience, the laying down of neuronal paths for each
individual is marked different - however, all genetic differences are
always reflected in bands of possibilities. Humans don't grow feathers
(do they?). All languages all fall within certain bands of
possibilities. (Is this a teleonomy?) And children, when mastering a
first language demonstrate ways of producing that language within
specific bands of possibility. (So we call it developmental.) For
example, child learning English don't, to my knowledge, put tense endings
on nouns.
It seems that within legitimate peripheral participation - any
joint activity - that there is a band of mastery possible, and that the
band of mastery is in great part due to the biological resource bands within
the activity members, as well as the knowledge resource bands of those
members. I am not saying that there is any specific determination here,
just that there are bands of possible activity ranges.
I do think that how a child demonstrates mastery of a language is
evidence of the invaluable role of the individual"as a person with
knowledge" because the child's demonstration is evidence of individual
construction and knowledge. Any group activity is set within fields of
individual genetic and experiential constructs. For me, these fields are
part of the 'peripheral' of any LPP.
Phillip
pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu