Philip said:
__________________________
for example - Leontiev writes that: "Although consciousness also has its
own history of evolution of the animal world, it first appears in man in
the process of the organization of work and social relations.
Consciousness from the very beginning is a social product."
this seems a chicken/egg predicament - and i don't know what sort of
anthropological/archeological evidence he's using - it runs counter to
contemporary thought about the physical structure of the brain and
consciousness - (Edelmann, for example)
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I think Leontyev's words need to be read in the light of what we have just
been reading in Ilyenkov re the ideal. Sure, the reflecting brain has
evolved via the animal kingdom, but concepts have not. It is the ideal,
which is exclusively the product of social history, which gives humanity
the objects and activities which, when reflected in our brains, constitute
consciousness.
In general we are on dangerous ground when we try to base statements about
the ideal, consciousness etc., on "anthropological or archaeological
evidence", we are slipping into categorical chicken and egg problems.
Andy
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