Re: [xmca] Intravolutions and Representations

[Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu>]

insinuation?

ORIGIN early 16th cent. (used in legal contexts in the sense [enter (adocument) in the official register] ): from Latin insinuat- ‘introduced tortuously,’ from the verb insinuare, from in- ‘in’ + sinuare ‘to curve.’

On Sep 30, 2010, at 2:34 PM, mike cole wrote:

> Concerning "Vrashchivanie": My big Russian dictionary does not have it. But
> it has the verbs, Vrashchat' and vrashchatsa.
> 
> Vrashchat' is defined as to move around one axis, to spin.
> Vrashchatsa adds the idea of to move around something.
> 
> 
> Neither of these work for me at all.
> 
> I will check the russian psych dictionary to see if its there when i get to
> the office but in looking at the suggestions so far, and trying to get an
> intuitive grasp of what it means in a Vygotskian context, I have come to the
> tentative conclusion that "involution" might work. It has both "inward"
> movement and qualitative transformation in it, at least as I understand the
> term. Intravolution seems too "already-inside" to me, enculturation MIGHT be
> used as a translation, but that depends upon your theory of the process of
> enculturation which some equate with socialization and internalization --
> two way that have their own
> issues.
> 
> Its so interesting to try to come to grips with the intuitions underlying
> such words!!
> 
> mike
> On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Armando Perez Yera
> <armandop@uclv.edu.cu>wrote:
> 
>> Larry:
>> Could you offer to me the complete reference to this book. It´s very
>> interesting the position of Sandra in regard to representation.
>> Armando
>> 
>> ________________________________________
>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf
>> Of Larry Purss [lpscholar2@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:16 AM
>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>> Subject: [xmca] Intravolutions and Representations
>> 
>> Sandra J's book "Knowledge in Context: Representations, Community, and
>> Culture" is a well crafted analysis of the notion of representation as a
>> concept.
>> 
>> She takes an historical and developmental perspective towards
>> representation
>> rather than  turn away from this concept. Her book is an attempt to
>> analyize
>> the intravolution or turn inward in our notions of representations and her
>> attempt is to reclaim representation as a central notion to reflect on.
>> 
>> Sandra locates the intravolutionary movement of interiorizing
>> representation as an historical phenomenom that happened historically at
>> the
>> time of Descartes. His philosophy is representative of this historical move
>> to interiorize thinking.  Charles Taylor, in "sources of the self"  is a
>> resource Sandra uses to explore this historical time periord when the
>> representational world [and worldview] was forming and being constructed.
>> [produced?]
>> 
>> In the 19th and 20th century this intravolution was consolidated and became
>> crystallized in the cognitive intravolution when the concept of
>> representation was BIASED towards the interiorization of the "epistemic
>> function" of knowlege construction.  In this intravolutionary move two
>> other
>> central functions of reresentations were moved into the shadows as the
>> epistemic function was privileged. The two other functions of
>> representation
>> [as an historical phenomenon]  are the "dialogical function" and the
>> "expressive function"  which Sandra's book is trying to illuminate by
>> returning to the social dimension of representations and reflecting
>> on why Eurocentric notions of representation positioned representation
>> as an intravolutionary movement.  Taylor points out that it was this move
>> inward that produced a new kind of person the "expressive" self.
>> 
>> She questions the "postmodern" attempt to deny the "reality" of
>> representations by such authors as Rorty.  Instead, she looks to authors
>> such as Vygotsky, Mead, Moscovici, and Winnicott as authors who have
>> engaged
>> with Descartes intravolutionary move of interiorizing representation as
>> they
>> reTURNED to the social dimension of representation as a microgenetic,
>> ontogenetic, and sociogenetic phenomenon.
>> 
>> Sandra makes clear that the notion of representations is a HISTORICAL
>> phenomenon and does not exist outside of history.  BUT because of European
>> history and the development of the concept of representations, the
>> intravolution of representations became the "ideal model" with which we
>> MEDIATED our constuctions of "self"  subjectively, intersubjectively, and
>> objectively.
>> 
>> Sandra's position on representation is that it is a mistake to do away with
>> the concept because of its historical intravolution. I will end with a
>> direct quote from Sandra.
>> 
>> "Representations are constructive ACTS OF ENGAGEMENT. A mode of relating to
>> the world outside. It is in the social and developmental psychology of self
>> and other RELATIONS that puts back [returns?] into representational
>> processes the DIALOGICAL and EXPRESSIVE functions that are, as much as the
>> epistemic function intrinsic to SYMBOLIC FORMS."  I am reading this book on
>> a kindle ebook so cannot give the page reference.]
>> 
>> I know there has been a move to represent "representations" as
>> "affordances"
>> in order to escape the intravolutionary historical move.  From Sandra's
>> perspective we should continue to engage with the concept of representation
>> because she suggests it is a central concept in our historical time.  We
>> moderns are immersed within representational space and to understand the
>> complexity of that historically constructed space we should continue to
>> ENGAGE the concept of representation as epistemic, dialogical and
>> expressive. The move to interiorize the epistemic function and move the
>> dialogical and expressive functions into the shadows is an insight that
>> should continue to be engaged.  From Sandra's perspective, we moderns
>> cannot
>> escape representational concepts  as a model of the world. Howevr we can
>> question the model as "ideal".
>> Vygotsky, Mead, Moscovici, and others,from Sandra's perspective,  are
>> "talking back" to Descartes intravolutionary move and in that spirit Sandra
>> is engaging the concept of representations.
>> 
>> Larry
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>> Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas. http://www.uclv.edu.cu
>> 
>> Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas. http://www.uclv.edu.cu
>> 
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