The Russian word prisvoenie probably does not have a Russian etymology
of its own but is a translation of the German "Aneignung." Leontyev's
use of the term is an obvious borrowing from Marx for whom the word was
intended to denote the peculiarly human productive relation to the
world. When we deal with the world we transform it according to our own
needs--this is Aneignung. It is the basis of the concept of property.
This relationship to the world is different from that of pre-cultural
animals who merely adapt to their surroundings. Aneignung is also the
basis of human history or cultural evolution, as opposed to biological
evolution. As Leontyev makes quite clear, a psychology based, as were
the earlier American functionalisms, only on the biological concept of
adaptation will inevitably fail to appreciate peculiarly cultural nature
of the human psyche. Appropriation neignung] is a concept intended to
help us do a better job of this.
As for the relationship between appropriation and interiorization, I
think Don Newman's reading of Leontyev is correct. On this question I
have run across the following in a very fine book on the concept of
appropriation by Werner Roehr neignung und Persoenlichkeit. Berlin:
Akademie Verlag, 1979]: He is speaking about the relationship between
appropriation and learning. He rejects the identification, partly
because it implies an equally false identification of appropriation and
interiorization. "Es zeigt sich also, dass eine Identifizierung von
Aneignungbegriff und Lernbegriff die Spezifik beider verfehlen muss.
Waehrend Aneignung auf Interiorisation reduziert und damit ihres Wesens,
der Produktivitaet, beraubt ist, erscheint das Lernen als Moment von
Aneignungsprozessen zu deren Ergebnis verkehrt. Unbeschadet
allerWiderspruechlichkeit der verschiedenen von Lompscher gebrauchten
Lernbegriffe laesst sich daher die Schlussfolgerung ziehen, dassjede
derartige Identifizierung nicht nur theoretisch falsch ist, sondern in
ihren praktischen Implikationlen auch eine Beeintraechtigung der
Entwicklung von Aneignungsfaehigkeiten bedeutet (p. 116). Among other
things, interiorization cannot grasp the essentially productive aspect
of appropriation.
Charles Tolman
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Nate Schmolze
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schmolze1@home.com
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