Eric, Nate, Ricardo, and others,
Eric, I'm indeed familiar with Jaan Valsiner, he has been teaching
here for several weeks. Our approaches to culture inclusive
psychology are sort of co-evolving for a couple of years already. You
will find Jaan's excellent description of some major features of
semiotic ecology in his "The Guided Mind" pp. 249-254.
Nat and Ricardo, when some of my phrasings about CHAT do rise
eyebrows now and then, please understand that I'm not at exegesis of
the founding father's writings. As I said, I appreciate the overall
cultural-historical approach as the major culture oriented psychology
available these years. Perhaps I'm a bit more reserved re activity
theory as a theory, probably because I have originally known a
version developed in Eastern Germany in the mid-seventies that has
concentrated on goal directed action. As I understand it since
reading Leontiev, Engestrom and other related work I can appreciate
it better because of seeing it embedded in the cultural-historical
framework. But my interest is to develop better basic concepts,
conceptual tools suitable for describing and understanding evolutive
systems, the human condition in particular.
Re CHAT, I am certainly not an expert. I do not read Russian. which I
find indispensable if one wants to treat of these ideas in detail and
in historical and philological ways. Differences of understanding
this or that detail or differences in intentions or reasoning are
simply outside of my interests. I only have the advantage of being
able to use both German and English translations and see the
differences. This gives me the advantage of a bird's eye. My interest
is in the principal rather than the details. All ideas are lastly
proposed by human individuals, but on the background and in the
receptive and interpretative perspective of other individuals, and
individuals with very influential social systems, not to forget. I
want to honor the men and their ideas; but they have not written
sacred text where you can find wisdom. My interest is in furthering
our understanding the human condition.
Best, Alfred
--Alfred Lang, Psychology, Univ. Bern, Switzerland --- alfred.lang@psy.unibe.ch Website: http://www.psy.unibe.ch/ukp/langpapers/
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