Bill,
thanks for the input. I think the idea of some dialectical relationship between subject and agent is productive way of thinking about it. The negative connotation of the word subject made me think again on how deeply the meaning depends on culture. In Russian the word subject has just philosophical and psychological connotations ( well, some political ones, too). Subject is a self-determining person, free to make decisions, etc. For learning activity, the word subject becomes even more significant - subjectivity is the content of learning activity understood as the ability to transform oneself qualitatively. Oh, well, those evolutionary-revolutionary times...
Elina
Bill Barowy <wbarowy@attbi.com> wrote:
A quick thought or two. in my interpretation of leont'ev, "individual
activity" is an oxymoron. "individual in activity" makes sense nevertheless,
and nearly precipitates out of the category "division of labor", when
different people must do diferent things, while in coordination with each
other, and while responsible to each other. recognition of the individual in
activity makes theoretically possible contrary decisions, freedom of choice,
responsibility. as boyce aptly put it, there is no responsibility for action
without freedom of choice.
Agent could be what a person is while making things happen, and subject could
be what others are as a theorist studies them, an unfortunate carry over from
when people were experimented on?. that is not to say agent and subject are
mutually exclusive, as one cannot study interventions without being both.
yet is it possible that activity theory is slow to respond to the tide
because subject is its anchor?
I have on my table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of
it and it responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a
violin string is supposed to do - to produce music. So I take it,
fix it in my violin and tighten it until it is taut. Only then it
is free to be a violin string.
Sir Rabindranath Tagore.
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