Greg, as Marx said: "Communism is the riddle of history solved," (1844). http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm#44CC4This discussion is an example. We each enter this discussion for different reasons (maybe not the same reason Mike created it for), maybe to find the answer to some question, but as we participate, the object of our activity broadens and deepens, and we find ourselves pursuing different questions. And xcma develops "according to its own logic" as they say.
An activity (generally) exists. Individuals join it (with their own motives). The object of the activity develops as people join it, participate in it, and find disappointment or enlightenment, etc., in so doing and modify the activity accordingly. A number of people joined the Bolshevik Party in 1903 with the aim of Socialism, but it didn't turn out like that despite their intentions and personal motives, but maybe the outcome (Stalin, USSR, Comintern, etc.) was there in the way they set about fighting for "socialism"? City planners see certain problems in the city's operations and instead of building public transport, they build freeways for cars. 100 years later (as Jane Jacobs showed) the problems are even worse, and they haver a different kind of city. Things don't always work out, but the outcome is *immanent* in the project itself, and is only realised in the outcome. A group of workers get the union in to solve oppressive problems at work. After years of fighting, they are all worn out, disillusioned and most of them fired. But the workplace is unionised and the next generation of workers enjoy the benefits.
Andy http://www.academia.edu/2947516/The_Fine_Granules_of_Historys_Sediment greg.a.thompson@gmail.com wrote:
Andy, could you give an example of what you mean when you say that the object is immanent in activity? -Greg