RE: [xmca] Smolucha - pronunciation/genealogy

["Vera John-Steiner" <vygotsky@unm.edu>]

Hi,
I think part of the problem is that creativity is too broad a term. It makes
sense to speak of creative projects, creative outcomes, creative solutions
(a lot of innovation would fit here)or creative people who are  committed to
a life of creative projects which require a deep immersion and mastery of a
domain, like music or mathematics.
While I think using "new" rather than "higher" psychological functions is a
good idea (see Andy's message) many psychological functions are taught and
acquired in their mediated form and do not start as "lower" 
functions. Counting historically started before we had counting words with
simple equivalences (stones in a pouch) but in most contemporary societies
the child is provided with a linguistically mediated form in infancy thus
starting with a socially-mediated "input." While Vygotsky's original
distinction between "higher" and "lower" is broadly useful, it needs
elaboration as well as developmental specification when used for a
particular function (or process.)

Vera 


-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Andy Blunden
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 8:13 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Smolucha - pronunciation/genealogy

Peter, in the last few posts we have had three definitions of what 
Vygotsky meant by "Higher Psychological Function", but they all, in my 
opinion, reference the same concept.

    * I said a higher psychological function is one built by the
      combination of other psychological functions.
    * Mike said all (culturally) mediated psychological functions are
      "higher psychological functions"
    * You said psychological functions specific to a culture are "higher
      psychological functions"

Having multiple definitions of a concept is just as it should be in a 
human science. How does a person construct new psychological functions 
out of existing ones?  By mediating the action of a lower function with 
objects from the culture, which are therefore culturally specific.

Yes?

Andy
Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
> Thanks Anton. I'm working from Smolucha's translation and accompanying
commentary, so perhaps am not so much looking for additional proof, but
rather trying to grasp the claim as made and illustrated in her article on
creativity.
>
> But then, perhaps that's too limiting. I must wonder about my own reading
of LSV if I've missed all the different versions of higher mental processes.
It's possible that I seized on the first notion I could understand--that
higher mental processes are those specific to a culture, and thus those that
embody cultural concepts so that they guide activity--and interpreted the
others in light of that schema. 
>
> I see creativity as being a capability through which such concepts may be
developed, within existing channels and contours. But--and I hope I'm not
repeating myself excessively--creativity itself seems more the engine of
development than the product of development. Particular sorts of creativity
seem cultural, if national art forms are taken as examples (Dutch painters
chose topics, styles, and forms quite different from those that occupied
French impressionists or Magdalenian cave wall artists). But creativity
itself doesn't strike me as the cultural framework through which these
genres of expression were produced, but rather a "lower" psychological
process that is widely shared rather than culturally specific.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Anton Yasnitsky
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 9:06 AM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Smolucha - pronunciation/genealogy
>
> Like I said, I am under the impression that Vygotsky's expression "higher
psychological [mental] functions" for Vygotsky means so many things
(although in different texts authored in different periods of his life) that
it is bordering on total meaninglessness. Therefore, rephrasing our
character, "everything can be ... higher mental function", no problem with
that :)
>
>
> Thus, if I may reformulate the question, we are looking for the textual
proof that Vygotsky did refer to creativity as higher mental/psychological
function, right, Peter?
>
>
> AY
>
>
> P.S.
>
> By the way, speaking of mental/psychological, here is a funny thing:
despite his virtually boundless flexibility in many respects, Vygotsky NEVER
used the word "mental" (literally: psychic, psychical -- psikhicheskie) when
he referred to functions, but only "psychological". Later on, this phrase
was pretty consistently "corrected" by his devoted best students in many
--but not all--of his posthumous publications of  Soviet period. Curious
detail, isn't it? A recent study that has been done back in Germany
demonstrates this mysterious peculiarity of Vygotsky's discourse of his
lifetime period as opposed to his posthumous publications, and will be
published shortly in several international languages in PsyAnima, Dubna
Psychological Journal ( http://www.psyanima.ru/journal/2011/4/index.php ).
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu>
> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 6:23:57 AM
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Smolucha - pronunciation/genealogy
>  
> In any case, in service of the scholarly discussion, I'm genuinely puzzled
by the idea that creativity is a higher mental function, and would
appreciate further clarity to that provided by Anton. Thx,p
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Peter Smagorinsky
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2012 6:20 AM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Smolucha - pronunciation/genealogy
>
> My apologies to Francine if my mnemonic sounded snide--I was going from
the pronunciation guide on the article that I had scanned, and I have no
idea of who put it there. With a name like Smagorinsky (which also might be
an Ellis Island adjustment), making fun of people's names is not usually
part of my approach. I'm glad to have the correction. Peter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of larry smolucha
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 9:22 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: [xmca] Smolucha - pronunciation/genealogy
>
>
> Message from Francine Smolucha:
> I have been a member of XMCA for several years - anyone could haveasked me
how to pronounce my last name.
> I not surprised that the discussion of the work my husband and I have
donebegins with a snide comment about our last name.Growing up in Chicago as
a Polish-American, other ethnic groupswould often make fun of your last
name, and tell insulting Polish jokes abouthow stupid Poles are. Polish
immigrants often had their last names Americanizedby immigration officials
at Ellis Island. In order for other ethnic groups to be able topronounce,
and spell a Polish last name, Poles would typically use an easy English
pronunciation.
> My husband's family would usually say Smo-lou-ka.Some family members would
say Smo-lou-cha.The proper Polish pronunciation is Smo-whoo-ha (Smolucha has
an umlaut over the u).The Smolucha family 'Y' chromosome is Scandinavian
(Vikings who settled Eastern Europecirca 800 A.D.) - we had the National
Geographic Society's Genoanthropology project do aDNA analysis.
> When I married into the Smolucha family, I chose to use my married name
out of respect formy husband's family. By the way, my maiden name is Polish
too.
> As I have been working on my new paper titled "A Vygotskian Theory of
Cultural Synergy andCultural Creativity", my conversation with a
Latin-American colleague required that I debunksome popular misconceptions
about 'white ethnics.' So I retell the story here:
> My own family is 'Celtic' Polish in origin (the Krakov area was settled by
Celts, Vienna was originally a Celtic village). The European Celts
disappeared from history. Poland itself did not existfor over 150 years
(from approximately 1760 until 1918) - while it was divided among
Prussia(then Germany), Austria, and Russia. [The Palestinian loss of
statehood is not unique in history.]One of my great grandmothers ran an
illegal underground school in her farmhouse near Vilna where she taught
children how to read and write the Polish language. The Czar had
orderedanyone doing so to be shot. Her son (my grandfather) had to be
smuggled out of St. Petersburgon a cattle ship bound for Canada after the
aborted 1905 Russia revolution - he was a memberof a student group being
hunted down by the Czar's orders. Back in Krakov, my other grandfatherwas
serving in Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph's 'Polish' cavalry (Austrian
occupied Poland beingrenamed Galactia) -  grandpa's wife was Spanish
Hapsburg.
> My parents, both first generation Americans, did not attend high school,
instead my Dad worked in the Chicago Stock Yards as a teenager (you might
recall Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle.)My mom was a factory girl. They
grew up in that famous Chicago ghetto known as Back-of-the-Yards.Five months
after they were married, Pearl Harbor was attacked -  my Dad served in the
Army fieldartlllery, doing four beachheads in the South Pacific (Aleutians,
Kwajelian, Philippines, & Okinawa).His unit would have landed in the first
wave in the Invasion of Japan - which was cancelled whenJapan surrendered
after the atomic bombs were dropped. Mom spent the war years building
fighterplanes in a defense plant - yes, Rosie the Riveter.
> We come from a family heritage of people who think for themselves and are
honor bound to do theright thing.
> If anyone is interested in discussing the Vygotsky Theory of Creativity
that we have been publishing in thelast 27 years, I welcome the scholarly
discourse. In addition to my 1992 Reconstruction of Vygotsky'sTheory of
Creativity, you might read our 2012 publication Vygotsky's Theory of
Creativity: Figurative thinking Allied withLiteral Thinking [in Contemporary
Perspectives on Research in Creativity in Early Childhood Education}.
>
>
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-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts


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