Re: [xmca] signs and tools-for-thought: an analogy?

Well, if we agree we are probably dead wrong, Andy. But its nice to have
company (albeit
also artifacts! :-)
mike.

On 9/10/07, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
>
> Well I agree with that Mike. In my comment on tools-for-thought, I was
> saying that the concept of semiosis was a tool for thought. Obviously, for
> Peirce as for Vygotsky, tool and sign are the same thing and both are
> material things albeit artefacts.
> Andy
> At 09:02 AM 10/09/2007 -0700, you wrote:
> >I don't know enough about physics except to be a great person to
> >demonstrate the
> >errors of naive physics folks who are asked to think about where a rock
> >will drop
> >from a moving airplane or the forces operating on a spring attached to a
> >wall and pulled
> >by an aging academic.
> >
> >But vis a vis mediated human activity, my intuitive take on Vygotsky's
> >ideas is that human
> >thought, in so far as it incorporates the products of prior human
> actions,
> >has a unique structure
> >that gives rise to higher psychological functions, an emergent outcome in
> >which tool and non-tool
> >contributions are both essential and irreducible to "thought" and "tool."
> >This may be more Pierce than somebody else, or simply mike cole's
> >confusion.
> >mike
> >
> >On 9/10/07, David Williamson Shaffer <dws@education.wisc.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > Analogies are always dangerous, of course. (Wasn't it Kundera who said
> to
> > > be
> > > careful of metaphors, because a single metaphor can give birth to
> love?)
> > >
> > > In any event, in technical terms heat is not Brownian motion, but
> > > temperature is. This from wikipedia, for example:
> > >
> > > "The temperature of a system is defined as simply the average energy
> of
> > > microscopic motions of a single particle in the system per degree of
> > > freedom."
> > >
> > > (For those wondering, heat is the transfer of this energy from one
> body to
> > > another.)
> > >
> > > Tony is clearly more of a Peirce expert than I, but the idea of a
> > > toolforthought is to suggest that thinking is, as he suggests, a tool
> > > activity--where signs and physical objects are all tools, and
> therefore
> > > also
> > > thoughts, and thinking is an emergent property of the inter-activity
> of
> > > toolforthoughts. That is, as Katie and I suggest, toolforthoughts are
> the
> > > cognitive instantiation of Latour's mutually mediating mediators.
> > >
> > > Which also suggests at least part of why the idea is so unsettling. It
> is
> > > awkward to conceive of our own experience as the product of a kind of
> > > socio-cultural/intellectual Brownian motion.
> > >
> > > I hope perhaps Jay Lemke and others who are more versed in actually
> > > physics
> > > than I will weigh in too. Meanwhile, there is a little flash animation
> of
> > > Brownian motion for those who think visually at
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature
> > >
> > > David
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:
> xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> > > > On Behalf Of Tony Whitson
> > > > Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 10:25 PM
> > > > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > > Subject: [xmca] signs and tools-for-thought: an analogy?
> > > >
> > > > In an earlier post, I repeated Peirce's view that thought is
> > > > sign-activity, and asked, if signs are merely tools for thought,
> then
> > > what
> > > > do we take thought, itself, to be?
> > > >
> > > > Reflecting on that, it occurs to me that it might be helpful to
> suggest
> > > > this as an analogy:
> > > >
> > > > To say that signs are tools for thought, is rather like saying that
> > > > molecules are tools for heat.
> > > >
> > > > To think of thought AS sign activity, is it helpful, as a lame
> analogy,
> > > to
> > > > think of heat AS Brownian motion?
> > > >
> > > > Tony Whitson
> > > > UD School of Education
> > > > NEWARK DE 19716
> > > >
> > > > twhitson@udel.edu
> > > > _______________________________
> > > >
> > > > "those who fail to reread
> > > > are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
> > > > -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > xmca mailing list
> > > > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > > > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> > >
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> > >
> >_______________________________________________
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>
> Andy Blunden : http://home.mira.net/~andy/ tel (H) +61 3 9380 9435, AIM
> identity: AndyMarxists mobile 0409 358 651
>
>
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Received on Mon Sep 10 19:47 PDT 2007