[xmca] activity vs discourse

[anna sfard <sfard@netvision.net.il>]

In his opening post Andy said:

"I am interested in the relation between Discourse Analysis and Activity
Theory. It seems to me that the two concepts, though different, are not at
all incompatible."

 

I agree. They are not incompatible. I wish to propose that discourses -
historically developed forms of communication - are  special cases of
activity. In fact, they are a *very* special  case of activity: first, they
are a part of any other activity; and second, they can be credited with the
main responsibility for our human uniqueness. Let me explain.

 

Whatever we do - whatever activity we engage in - we mediate our deeds with
discourse. Quite often, this discourse is an activity of self communication,
that is, thinking. Different discourses mediate different kinds of
activities. Colloquial discourses mediate all our daily deeds. Mathematical
and scientific discourses mediate the activity of creating tools, for
example. The discourses are "buried" within the tools we make, sometimes
quite literary (as in computers, for example, in the form of all kinds of
coded messages that bring the golem to life). This is why, by the way, that
tools can be said to be our secondary repository of complexity, one that is
more concrete but less "unpackable". 

 

And how does the discourse, this very special, omnipresent kind of activity
that infiltrates all the others, become the primary suspect in our quest for
the sources of our human uniqueness? Well, verbal discourse (as opposed to
discourse in pictures, in body language, etc.), thanks to the property of
recursivity, is our primary repository of complexity. It is  the tool with
the help of which we can modify our activities, making them more and more
complex from one generation to another  (my apology to those who find the
notion of recursivity obscure; it would be too much to try to explain it
here, but the argument can be understood without it; so just skip it; and if
not, then google; but do also take look at the footnote - the PS below my
signature). It is thanks to discourses that  each generation can begin where
the former left and that we are able to build on this heritage rather than
starting from scratch. And this is this one thing that makes us visibly
distinct from other species. After all, when it comes to birds, lions and
fish, each generation more or less recapitulates  the forms of life of the
preceding generations. Indeed, whereas our present dwellings are visibly
distinct from those of, say, the cave man (or should I say cave persons?) or
even from those of medieval folks, nightingale's nest remained more or less
unchanged, as far as I can tell, through all this period.  

 

And now, as to the choice of notion that could be central to our research.
Hope there is now clear what my answer is going to be: there is no need to
choose or even to bridge, because one is simply a special case of the other.
Activity is the larger idea, discourse is a sub-category. Of all human
activities, discourse is the focal idea of my own research simply because I
deal with mathematics, which is a kind of discourse, and with thinking,
which is a discursive activity. But Andy, do note that while investigating
discourse, I am researching activity. And I may even find out things that
would be relevant to those who investigate other forms of activity, such as
tool production, sports, etc.

 

I am aware that I said much too much for one morning. So, let me stop
without further ado. 

 

anna

 

PS. With regard to how discourses do the trick of accumulating complexity,
here is a brief explanation. Discourses produce codes of activity, and
recursivity makes it possible to periodically squeeze the former lengthy
segments of code into compact entities - black boxes that do not have to be
unpacked in order to be executable. Once squeezed, the discourse can easily
produce even more complex codes. Mathematics is particularly good at this
procedure of squeezing; in my work I call it reification. .

 

 

 

 

 

 

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