Philip,
I don't disagree but think the point is that the physicality is
transformed - it becomes something different. This may lead us to
transformation vs change which Davydov argues is important in a dialectical
outlook. The eye becomes a human eye - it ceases to be simply a biological
or physical instrument in labor.
We could use something concrete like ADHD, development or whatever. The
point isn't that biology determines these aspects of childhood or that they
are determined by culture, but how in activity they become different things.
They become disorders, ways to "class"ify children, and a whole bunch of
other things.
So, rather than saying that activity is constrained - which I agree with -
by the egg the point is that the egg becomes something different - it goes
through transformation. Mike I believe once said Activity is where the
subjective and objective are inseperable - the same I suppose could be said
about the egg - it does not interact because of its inseperability from the
omelette labor activity, but it does become something different. It seems in
making an omelette - and this is important I think - what does and would
contrain me is not the properties of the eggs, but making enough money to
buy them, how they are dispersed in society, the recipes I have knowledge
of, and the type of education I have received in omlette making that would
"deterimine" in what creaive ways I engage with that egg. I mean I am also
contrained that I don't have wings (I'm working on it) - but I'm not so sure
putting my eggs in that basket will get me far.
Nate
the labor of making omelettes is in part constrained by the physical
constraints of the egg, as well as the constraints of the cook as well as
the tools available to the cook - they are inseparable - no matter how
greatly you labor your can't make an omlette on a flat rock out of corn
meal.
phillip
/ \ / \ / \
/ \ / \
Buddha speaking to Vasettha:
One is not a brahmin by birth,
Nor by birth a non-brahmin.
By action is one a brahmin,
by action is one a non-brahmin.
So that is how the truly wise
See action as it really is,
Seers of dependent origination,
Skilled in actions and its results.
Action makes the world
go round,
Action makes this
generation turn.
Living beings are bound
by action
Like the chariot wheel
by the pin.
phillip white
third grade teacher
doctoral student
scrambling a dissertation
denver, colorado
phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu
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