[xmca] Hitorical Development

David,
  Now you're clearer about the "deflated frog" as an empty formula , general , the implication of which I received well [and thank you very much] , which is achieved through "empirical analysis" which is not , of course , denigrated by essense-driven theoreticians as we read :
  [note to self : Now Martin with good understanding of the "general" in the "particular" goes ahead like this] :
  <These Marxist [Plekhanov & Co.] psychologists had arrived at a method they called “analysis,” which involved the "contemplative" study of single cases. They claimed that natural science proceeds inductively, whereas the mind must be studied through analysis. In Vygotsky’s view they had succeeded only in reproducing the same old dualism. But he insisted that “the analytical method is in principle too important for the development of the whole of social psychology, to render it without striking a blow” (Vygotsky, 1926–27/2004, p. 316). He did not want to lose analysis to introspectionism, did not want to surrender it before a blow had been struck in its defense.
  Vygotsky argued that natural science also proceeds through the study of individual cases. It does this not to generalize by means of induction, because analysis is the “highest form” of induction, and as such it “contradicts its [induction’s-in the original] essence (repetition)” (p. 317). Analysis is a form of induction that does not require the repeated study of multiple individual cases because it studies the particular case not as a particular, but from a special viewpoint that sees the general properties that are realized in it. We establish in advance (albeit provisionally) the general class that our particular case represents. For example, by studying salivation in dogs, Pavlov had studied reflexes in general, in animals in general. “Pavlov maximally abstracted the phenomenon he studied from the specific conditions of the particular phenomenon. He
  brilliantly perceived the general in the particular” (Vygotsky, 1926–27/2004, p. 317). The degree of extension of such findings is determined in advance; it is not that one has to study more cases to discover how much one can generalize. Of course, Vygotsky added, to determine the limits of generalization is a tricky business, and ongoing, never final. And analysis does not lead to essences, but “generalizations which have boundaries and degrees” (p. 321). >
  If I've misunderstood the above and if it's not relevant to our discussion , correct please .
  And :
  Doesn't it seem to you that if LSV were alive today, he might be saying exactly the same thing about "activity"?
I wonder if , here , you're talking to Mike or me ! However ,
  Doesn't it seem to you that if LSV were alive today, what might he be saying exactly about his once own understanding :
   “Marxist psychology is not a school amidst schools, but the only genuine psychology as a science. A psychology other than this cannot exist” (p. 342). Finally, the term Marxist was unnecessary because it was self-evident: Marxist should be “synonymous with ‘truthful’ and ‘scientific’” (p. 342).
  We had better let others say of our psychology that it is Marxist than call it that ourselves.
  Response : "There are one hundred versions of Marxism" as "There are one hundred versions of Vygotskianism" .
  To tell you the truth , I'm thinking of "Matter cannot exist without motion" and "Behind consciousness is being" .
  As arranged , I'm reading Toomela's "Activity Theory is a Dead End for Cultural-Historical Psychology" as opposed to Carl Ratner's "A Cultural-Psychological Analysis of Emotions" as well as the more relevant part of Martin's article "The psychology of child development" . Let's see what comes out of it [and thank you really for your cooperation] .
  With Best of My Wishes
  Heidi
  heidizulfai@yahoo.com

       
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Received on Sat Mar 1 13:40 PST 2008