Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
Thanks CJ, I'll take a look. I'm not an expert, but from my experience, cats are less responsive to word symbols than dogs. Note that even dogs can learn a small number of symbols. They respond to their names. On 11/24/09, CeJ jann...@gmail.com wrote: Hey CB, you might find this article interesting. It's a nice synthesis of 'gestural origins' of language with 'mirror neuron' research. Also, I find it interesting how gesture is so different with the cats I interact with on campus. Although gestures meaning things like 'come here' are culturally different--the Japanese one looks more like waving good-bye--there is the symbolic element that, for example, cats don't have. When I want to approach cats who are wary of me, or want them to approach me, I get down on all fours, squint my eyes, and then look away. I'm not saying there isn't anything 'symbolic' or 'representational' in such gestures, but with humans the gestures seem to evoke 'hey you over there, come over here where I am' by pointing to a place that is neither over there where they are nor right where I am. And that is a simple gesture, I would think. I don't know if that makes us more intelligent but differently intelligent. Let's see if the long link runs, and if not I'll do one of those 'short url' things. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL_udi=B6T0J-4JRVF0G-2_user=1043454_rdoc=1_fmt=_orig=search_sort=d_docanchor=view=c_rerunOrigin=google_acct=C50820_version=1_urlVersion=0_userid=1043454md5=99fd2a00980ca5602994567e4bfe8824 CJ -- Japan Higher Education Outlook http://japanheo.blogspot.com/ We are Feral Cats http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault�s Discursive Subjectby Blunden
It is my understanding that dogs can understand up to several hundred words. They are also excellent readers of human body language. Jim F. -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com To: Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucaults Discursive Subjectby Blunden Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:49:30 -0500 Thanks CJ, I'll take a look. I'm not an expert, but from my experience, cats are less responsive to word symbols than dogs. Note that even dogs can learn a small number of symbols. They respond to their names. On 11/24/09, CeJ jann...@gmail.com wrote: Hey CB, you might find this article interesting. It's a nice synthesis of 'gestural origins' of language with 'mirror neuron' research. Also, I find it interesting how gesture is so different with the cats I interact with on campus. Although gestures meaning things like 'come here' are culturally different--the Japanese one looks more like waving good-bye--there is the symbolic element that, for example, cats don't have. When I want to approach cats who are wary of me, or want them to approach me, I get down on all fours, squint my eyes, and then look away. I'm not saying there isn't anything 'symbolic' or 'representational' in such gestures, but with humans the gestures seem to evoke 'hey you over there, come over here where I am' by pointing to a place that is neither over there where they are nor right where I am. And that is a simple gesture, I would think. I don't know if that makes us more intelligent but differently intelligent. Let's see if the long link runs, and if not I'll do one of those 'short url' things. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL_udi=B6T0J-4JRVF0G-2_user=1043454_rdoc=1_fmt=_orig=search_sort=d_docanchor=view=c_rerunOrigin=google_acct=C50820_version=1_urlVersion=0_userid=1043454md5=99fd2a00980ca5602994567e4bfe8824 CJ -- Japan Higher Education Outlook http://japanheo.blogspot.com/ We are Feral Cats http://wearechikineko.blogspot.com/ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis Doctorate Degrees Online Boost your career with an online doctoral degree. Enroll today! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=y_yOwuThao_dutkLTeZpnQAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAA4SoT4AAAMlAAAyOQA= ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Urgent call for more jobs gains momentum
Urgent call for more jobs gains momentum EPI News - November 24, 2009 http://www.epi-data.org/epinews/epinews20091124.html EPI's urgent call for more jobs gains momentum EPI has joined forces with a coalition of national organizations in calling for more action to create jobs. On November 17, EPI hosted the panel discussion, Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis, where the heads of the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, and other groups warned that today's high unemployment could stunt an entire generation's lifetime earnings and devastate minority communities. https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1691/t/6837/l/eng/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=56124 The coalition, which consists of EPI, the AFL-CIO, Center for Community Change, the NAACP, and the National Council of La Raza, issued an Urgent Call for Action to Stem the U.S. Jobs Crisis, recommending many of the same policy actions that EPI proposed last month in its five-part approach to large-scale job creation. These include additional aid to strapped state governments, public-sector job creation, as well as investments in infrastructure and tax credits to create private-sector jobs. The group also advocates extended emergency unemployment compensation and subsidies for COBRA health insurance into 2010. http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/an_urgent_call_for_action_to_stem_the_u.s._jobs_crisis/ Unemployment: The civil rights issue of our time The Call to Action praised the Obama administration for moving swiftly earlier this year to pass the Recovery Act, which has already created at least 1.1 million jobs. But it stressed that additional help was needed. The Great Recession is an unfolding social catastrophe, said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change. If we act quickly, a jobs program could put millions of people to work in 2010. Much of the discussion at the Spotlight on the Jobs Crisis panel focused on the groups hardest hit by the jobs crisis. Although the nationwide unemployment rate of 10.2% is the highest level seen in 26 years, it is much higher for communities of color: 13.1% for Hispanic workers and 15.7% for black workers. Make no mistake. This is the civil rights issue of our time, Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said at the event. There can be no equal opportunity without economic justice and a stable job that provides a living wage. Dire States One component of the Urgent Call for Action, the need for more relief to state governments, was outlined in more detail in the Briefing Paper, Dire States, by EPI Policy Analyst Ethan Pollack. After drawing down rainy day funds, states face a two-year, $357 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal years 2010 and 2011, the paper shows, while local governments face an additional $80 billion shortfall. After accounting for budget relief provided by the Recovery Act, state and local governments will still face $331 billion in shortfalls that will have to be closed with spending cuts and tax increases. This would put a significant drag on economic growth and make it more difficult to get the economy back on track. On November 19, EPI hosted the panel discussion Spurring Job Creation: The Role of Federal Aid to State and Local Governments, which featured Pollack and a group of other speakers discussing the severe budget crunches faced by most state and local governments. Douglas Palmer, the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey, delivered the keynote address, where he stressed that most of the country's unemployment was concentrated in metropolitan areas like Trenton, which has a 17% jobless rate. Most U.S. cities are expected to make additional job cuts next year, he said. 900,000 more jobs could be lost next year [Zandi]Mark Zandi (pictured), chief economist at Moody's Economy.com said that while Recovery Act spending helped the economy expand in recent months, the economic recovery remained very fragile and could come under more pressure in late 2010 when the majority of stimulus funds runs out. He said additional budget relief to state and local governments would be needed to sustain the recovery. Another speaker, Iris Lav, senior advisor at the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities, said that without additional federal relief, the cuts that state and local governments would be forced to make to balance their budgets would cost an additional 900,000 jobs in 2010. Eisenbrey on jobs in America, arbitration in Canada EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey has been taking EPI's five-point plan for job creation on the road. He presented the plan to a group of labor and business leaders and state and local government officials at a workshop at the annual meeting of the National Network of Sector Partners and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. Eisenbrey also addressed the University of the District of Columbia's Open Forum on Jobs Creation, where he debated solutions to the U.S. jobs crisis with Barbara Lang,
[Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism
CeJ jannuzi I would say HH and FDR were birds of a capitalist feather. FDR ran on a campaign that criticized Hoover for his profligate spending, the result of budget increases that resulted in high deficits (at least up until that time), and his tax increases. In practice, both HH and FDR pursued both monetary and fiscal measures to address the perceived political crisis that was a result of an economic crisis (any time a politician has trouble get re-elected, the crisis becomes real to him). It's hard to liken Obama to either Hoover or FDR in terms of what he inherited. HH inherited a budget surplus and ran it into deficits. Obama inherits a deficit that is so enormous it is beyond human intelligence to comprehend. ^^^ CB: What is the US ( and Irish) national debt ? I recall that Reagan doubled the national debt from what it was accumulated from all Presidents before. ( Uh CB, there is google; smile) http://zfacts.com/p/318.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt United States public debt U.S. debt from 1940 to 2008. Red lines indicate the public debt and black lines indicate the gross debt, the difference being that the gross debt includes funds held by the government (e.g. the Social Security Trust Fund). The second chart shows debt as a percentage of U.S. GDP or dollar value of economic production per year. Data from U.S. Budget historical tables at whitehouse.gov/omb and other tables listed when you click on the figure.The United States government debt, commonly called the public debt or the national debt, is the amount of money owed by the Federal government of the United States to holders of U.S. debt instruments. Gross Debt is the national debt plus intragovernmental debt obligations or debt held by trust funds like the Social Security Trust Fund. Types of securities sold by the government include, but are not limited to, Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, TIPS, United States Savings Bonds, and State and Local Government Series securities.[1] The annual government deficit refers to the difference between government receipts and spending. Logically, the deficit is equal to annual increase in the debt. However, there is certain spending (supplemental appropriations and the surplus tax receipts in the Social Security program) that add to the debt but are excluded from the deficit. For example, during 2008 the budget deficit was $455 billion but the national debt increased by $1 trillion, the first time it has done so in a single year.[2][3] The total debt has increased over $500 billion each year since FY 2003, considering both budgeted and non-budgeted spending.[4] Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Debt ceiling 3 Components 3.1 Public and government accounts 3.1.1 Estimated ownership 3.1.2 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac obligations excluded 3.1.3 Guaranteed obligations excluded 3.2 Foreign ownership 3.3 Statistics and comparables 4 Risks and obstacles 4.1 Risks to the U.S. dollar 4.2 Long-term risks to financial health of federal government 4.2.1 Unfunded obligations 4.3 Recent additions to the public debt of the United States 4.4 Interest expense 5 Debt clocks 6 Calculating and projecting the debt 7 See also 8 References 9 External links ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] The SWP and underconsumptionism
Finally, hey it's almost time to organize to get Obama re-elected. I know what he can run on: Don't let all our good work go unfinished. CJ ^^^ CB: And don't forget : Palin is a fascist. ( no smiley face; pace Trotskyists' analysis) ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
CJ, have you studied Vygotsky ? He seems to be the most Marxoid of all the famous linguists. Oh I didn't send the Blunden essays on Vygotsky. Very interesting and Marxist development of the relationship between thought and language Vygotsky and the Dialectical Method http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/comment/vygotsk1.htm Vygotsky’s unfinished theory of child development http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/comment/vygotsky-on-development.pdf From where did Vygotsky get his Hegelianism? http://home.mira.net/~andy/works/vygotskys-hegelianism.htm Charles B ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Soviet Cultural Psychology
On his return to activity, the group began to work their way through all the theories of psychology which were contesting the field on the world stage: Freud, Piaget, James, ... critiquing them and appropriating the insights each had to offer. The group worked collaboratively, discussing the problems in a group while one of them took notes. To this day it is not possible to be certain about the authorship of much of what the group produced in this period. Even graduate students were invited to experiment on their own initiative and sometimes made key breakthroughs. In a 1929 manuscript known as ‘The Crisis in Psychology’ (1997a) they critically appropriated the insights of many contending schools of psychology, just as Marx had laboriously worked his way through everything that had been written about political economy. Vygotsky developed the idea of the ‘unit of analysis’ for a science. As Marx points out in the preface to the first edition of Capital, the commodity relation is the germ or cell of economics. All the phenomena of capitalism can be unfolded from this simplest and most primitive of relations, the exchange of commodities, just like the cell of biology and the molecule of chemistry. This idea originated with Goethe and is a key methodological principle for both Hegel and Marx. Finding that the relation between thinking and speaking was the central problem for psychology, he concluded that resolving this problem was a microcosm of the whole problem of human consciousness. He went on to conclude that word meaning was the unit of analysis for the study of intelligent speech (1987), and more generally, that the basic unit of psychology is joint, artefact-mediated action, with word meaning a special case. To make a beginning in their investigations, the group developed a novel approach to psychological experimentation. Vygotsky pointed out that the usual approach which emphasized ‘scientific objectivity’ and observed the behaviour of individual subjects, isolated from interaction with other people, especially the experimenter, was incapable of capturing psychological functions in the process of development, but was limited to the observation of finished process. Treating subjects like laboratory rats in this way, it was impossible to understand psychological processes, which are not innate, but originate from the collaborative use of cultural products. The team developed what they called the ‘functional method of double stimulation’ (Vygotsky 1987): the subject was given a task to perform; then they were offered some artefact which they could use to complete the task. By assisting the subject to use an artefact, such as an aide mémoire, to complete a task, the researchers could actually foster the development of a new psychological function, such as ability to memorize. The use of a ‘psychological tool’ allows the subject to modify their own psyche. The fact is that a universal characteristic of human psychology is the disposition of human beings to use cultural products to control their own behaviour. By collaborating in this, the researcher can unlock the developmental processes of the psyche. The cultural psychologists were making a name for themselves and earning respect, but at no point were they able to challenge behaviourism as the dominant current in Soviet ‘psychology’. Behaviorism is the science of prediction and control of other people’s behaviour, based on the S?R (Stimulus-Response) model, and this was the kind of science which met the needs of the Soviet bureaucracy. And political conditions were changing. When Leontyev published a book in 1929, the publisher inserted a preface denouncing his ‘errors’, and in 1930 he was forced to leave his post at the Krupskaya Academy of Communist Education. With Lydia Bozhovich and others, Leontyev set up a center in Kharkov where they might be able to work more freely, this later becoming the Neurosurgical Institute. In the meantime, Vygotsky worked prodigiously, as if in a hurry, and in the early 1930s gave lectures (transcribed by his students) and wrote the manuscripts in which his scientific legacy, the foundations of cultural psychology, were set down, focusing mainly on questions of methodology, the areas of child development, emotions and learning and ‘defectology’. The Institute for Defectology in Gomel provided a refuge for Vygotsky’s students to continue their work as the political pressure continued to mount. In 1931, with Vygotsky’s help, Luria carried out an expedition to Uzbekistan to investigate the changes taking place in the thinking of people who were being drawn directly from a feudal lifestyle into a modern planned economy, a unique opportunity to observe cultural psychology in motion. They found that even limited schooling or experience with collective farming brought about dramatic changes in people’s thinking. There were some flaws in Luria’s methodology and his interpretation of the results, but officialdom missed
[Marxism-Thaxis] Soviet Cultural Psychology
Ilyenkov’s most widely noted contribution was his study of the ideal, of how ideals come into being as perfectly material cultural products, the archetype of which is money. His study of Capital, “The Abstract and Concrete in Marx’s Capital” is a masterpiece. Ilyenkov gained a formidable reputation as an interpreter of Hegel even outside of the ranks of Marxism. Ilyenkov was a communist, and the frustration of life in Brezhnev’s USSR became more and more unbearable for him. Another great philosopher of this generation was Feliks Mikhailov who tackled the seemingly insurmountable philosophical problems that arise as soon as the orthodox Marxist begins to look beyond the simple slogans of philosophical materialism. During the late 1970s, Leontyev’s work began to come under some criticism, criticism generally basing itself on the work Vygotsky, of which Leontyev himself had been seen as the foremost authority, signaling the development of a new generation of critical Marxist thinking. But in the late 1970s, an entire generation of Soviet psychologists died: Luria and Meshcheryakov died in 1977, Leontyev and Ilyenkov in 1979, Ilyenkov by his own hand. Creating a Marxist cultural psychology in the post-Stalin USSR faced an almost insurmountable difficulty: Marx had plenty say about the social and psychological problems arising from bourgeois society, but the Soviet Union was supposed to be free of all such ‘contradictions’. Even those who were wise enough to know that this was nonsense had no opportunity to theorise the pathology of Soviet life, being quite unable to talk or write about such things with other people. Science cannot be built without discussion. This meant that there was a firm line beyond which Soviet psychology could not go without descending into hypocrisy. Even a brilliant Soviet psychologist like Vasily Davydov presaged his analysis of child development on ‘really existing socialism’ being a norm, against which the pathologies of other societies were measured (Kozulin 1990). Perhaps Ilyenkov’s solution was the only way out? But in those precious two decades between a thaw in the suppression of scientific enquiry and the death of the Vygotsky’s continuers, contact was made with the West. In 1962, a young psychology graduate on a student exchange from Indiana University, Mike Cole, arrived in Moscow for a year of research into ‘reflexes’ under Luria (APA 2006). Cole frankly admitted that the significance of Vygotsky’s work which Luria was urging on him utterly escaped his understanding. Nonetheless, Cole took on the task of translating and publishing Luria and Vygotsky’s work in the US. Through Cole’s collaboration with Soviet academics, his own research and teaching, and the steady flow of English translations, a current of Cultural Psychology grew up in the US. Other Americans, such as James Wertsch also visited Russia and contributed to the work of interpreting, translating and exporting this conquest of the Soviet Union. Many, many others like Jaan Valsiner, R. van der Veer, Dot Robbins also played an important role. Finland has always enjoyed a close relationship with Russia, and Yjrö Engeström’s group in Helsinki is probably the main vehicle for the transmission of Activity Theory to the West. There has also been an outflow to the West of Russian academics, schooled in “Cultural Historical Activity Theory” (CHAT). After decades of isolation behind an ‘iron curtain’, in reconnecting with the West, the impact of the social movements (feminism, civil rights, etc.) began to contribute to the development of what is fundamentally an emancipatory theory. There is a great irony here. A Marxist theory of the mind was born in the cauldron of the Russian Revolution, but was repressed precisely because of its revolutionary Marxist character, despite the fact that Marxism was the official state doctrine. After 30 years in hiding, it escaped to take root in the U.S., the bastion of capitalism and anti-communism, where in order to survive it had to keep its Marxism under wraps. But in a double irony, the crisis which befell Marxism in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union left CHAT largely unscathed, because of the non-political shape it had adopted for the purposes of survival in the past. So CHAT is now a worldwide current in the human sciences, largely overlooked by anyone going in search of Marxism, because it is located in the professional lives of teachers and social workers, linguists and psychologists, almost all of them politically on the Left, but no kind of Party. In the opinion of many, it is the most important intellectual gain of the whole period of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath in the USSR. References American Psychological Association, (2006) Citation for Michael Cole: Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology, American Psychologist,
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Soviet Cultural Psychology
In an old Marxmail post, I drew a connection between the debates that took place in the 1920s between the Soviet Mechanists and Deborinists and the later debates in Soviet philosophy and psychology, as exemplified in the work of Ilyenkov. See: http://tinyurl.com/djbre Jim Farmelant -- Original Message -- From: c b cb31...@gmail.com To: Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl Marx and the thinkers he inspired marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Soviet Cultural Psychology Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:41:44 -0500 Ilyenkovs most widely noted contribution was his study of the ideal, of how ideals come into being as perfectly material cultural products, the archetype of which is money. His study of Capital, The Abstract and Concrete in Marxs Capital is a masterpiece. Ilyenkov gained a formidable reputation as an interpreter of Hegel even outside of the ranks of Marxism. Ilyenkov was a communist, and the frustration of life in Brezhnevs USSR became more and more unbearable for him. Wholesale Hardwood Floors Never pay retail again. Wholesale prices on all hardwood flooring! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=7RmWH8NHEFrfVfzyFF2vXwAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAQFAFwF6j4AAAMlAANlcwA= ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
JFIt is my understanding that dogs can understand up to several hundred words. They are also excellent readers of human body language. Yes, and the reason why so many humans get bit is that humans are not very good readers of canine body language. There is a theory out of Africa, Australia and Indonesia that wolf-like canines--like the dingo--co-evolved with humans (the dingo is actually a domesticated dog that reverted to being wild, like 'coydogs' in N. America). So these theorists seek to explain not just canine-human interactions but human social behaviour in terms of humans being socially integrated with dogs. One thing that has happened to dogs though is an evolution--a human-made natural selection?--towards eternally puppy-like cute dogs. This seems to be a more modern turn in human-canine co-evolution. However, it was empirically supported by studies in Russia that looked at families keeping a species of fox as a source of income because the foxes were killed for the fur. But families there would sometimes choose one pup from a litter to spare from being killed. Over just a few generations it was demonstrated that this species was transforming into a cute dog-like fox because it was the ones being chosen as pups that were breeding and apparently the humans were choosing them for their cuteness. One thing of interest in human-canine communication is that, although humans often make a big deal of the dog's ability to respond to verbal commands, it's often the body language and the hand signal that the dog is responding to with surety. So perhaps the theories can be tied together--one, the evolution of language first as gesture and then onto gestural speech; two, the evolution of human-dog communication and social relations, such that dogs can understand human hand-gesturing while cats ignore it. We did have any significant period of time when we hunted in human-dog packs or kept domesticated cats to protect our cattle and homes. OTOH, cats on campus here have allowed me to go hunting with them. I think domesticated cat brothers and sisters will hunt together, so long as the territory and environment supports it. Young males tend to get ejected by the territorial tom. But I've altered that dynamic because I have had all the cats on campus fixed. This has also altered the fact the females go into a period of extreme vulnerability when they have to produce litters and nurture them for up to a year. You can tell I'm interested in cats. CBI'll take a look. I'm not an expert, but from my experience, cats are less responsive to word symbols than dogs. Note that even dogs can learn a small number of symbols. They respond to their names. I have cats here on campus who clearly respond to their names--at least when I say them. So when I say 'Shaun' and Shaun, Caramel and Orange Blossom are there, Shaun will look at me. I'm interested in the combinations of gestural routines cats will use to tell each other how and where they want to socialize (cats are supposed to be territorial and solitary, but this is contradicted by the fact that they will form colonies and that brother-sister, brother-brother, sister-sister and mother-son/daughter ties are long-lasting and obviously part of their interactions if they are not separted from each other. Also, although the campus cats have clearly marked out zones, there are also overlapping areas where they do not enforce territories and this is the sort of place where they will come together to interact. BTW, Pongo the black-and-white male cat in my office is telling me to pay attention to him instead of doing e-mail. How? He is nipping me in my armpits and then trying to bite the buttons off my vest. The occasional 'crotch grab' really gets my attention. Gender solidarity? CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
Objective spirit might be interpreted materialisitically as culture, custom, tradition, systems of ideas shared by peoples. Spirit not as a wispy , non-material whatever , nor as a disembodied ghost, nor The Idea as a demiurge, but as shared ideas in many peoples' brains. On the Levi-Strauss model , it is like a grammar shared by speakers of the same language. Yes indeed. And this was the 'realm' that the symbolists attempted to delve into in order to make their art 'transcendant'. And you can see where 'structure' and 'superstructure' come from for the structuralists. This is also why post-modern Marx tends to look more like an objective idealist rather than a strict materialist, the latter giving us the more behaviourist views (although many structuralists, when interpreting their ideas for education, tended philosophically towards behaviourism). The question to ask the philosophy seminar, though, is where, for example, does the grammar exist? Or subsist? Does it subsist in some structuralist realm? You know, langue and not parole? Or when you get to Chomsky, and his 'pscyological turn', competence and not performance (and behaviourists would only be interested in performance and some sort of external control mechanism). Which could take me back to number and Frege's problem. He couldn't have number exist only in the minds of individuals but he couldn't stand the idea of a transcental idealist concept either. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
CJ, have you studied Vygotsky ? He seems to be the most Marxoid of all the famous linguists. Back in the 80s it was quite common to cite: 1. Vygotsky in education and education psychology 2. Bakhtin in literary criticism 3. Elkonen (? unsure of romanization now) in 'reading science'. All previously under-estimated Soviet social or pscyhological scientists. Vygotsky is STILL very popular in education and in applied linguistics (especially if you apply the idea that in foreign or second language learning, 'general learning' is more important than any 'language acquisition' device). Krashen, a conceptual guru for applied linguistics and second language acquisition studies, was apparently very much influenced by Vygotsky, although he and his followers now claim the concerns are different (developmental psychology vs. second language acquistion). At this year's JALT conference (a foreign language teaching conference here in Japan), there was a spirited discussion of Vygotsky. I would say, very essential reading if you want to do original conceptualization and research in education, language education, etc. If you just want to dip into the current 'state of the art' though, not very important. More along the lines of the history of education, educational psychology, etc--along with Piaget, Rousseau and Mann. Earlier I cited correspondence about Vygotsky that Piaget wrote because apparently he had a revelation over the relevance of Vygotsky's work but only rather late in his career, because Vygotsky had not come to his attention before. I also cited the marxist collection of Vygotsky here. But hey, if you are interested in the history of developmental pscyhology and educational psychology, you can never get enough of Vygotsky. To the extent that his ideas have been so integrated into the 'popular imagination/consciousnesss/conceptual schema', perhaps people ought to stop citing him though. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
See this, if you are interested in Vygotsky and/or Piaget: http://www.marxists.org/archive/elkonin/works/1971/stages.htm Wish they had more by him! CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
http://www.marxists.org/subject/psychology/index.htm Going to this section of the the mo site, it's interesting to track down and compare Vygotsky on 'crisis of psychology' with Husserl on the subject. Husserl wrote a book about the topic. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
Reading across Vygotsky, Elkonin, Merleau-Ponty and Husserl on psychological topics and concepts is an education in itself. M-P was a Marxist. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/merleau-ponty/ http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/merleaup.htm http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/husserl.htm http://www.scribd.com/doc/19302561/Husserl-and-Soviet-Marxism CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden
Not being able to download the article I would appreciate being sent the password. Thanks! __ Od: CeJ Komu: marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu Datum: 26.11.2009 03:33 Předmět: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis]Foucault’s Discursive Subject by Blunden CB, I was able to download the entire article in pdf at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PdfDownloadURL_uoikey=B6T0J-4JRVF0G-2_tockey=%23toc%234864%232006%2399962%23631516%23FLA%23_orig=search_acct=C50820_version=1_userid=1043454md5=83d4de332254cb4558fbcde05887ebca Let me know if you are being blocked or password required--I'll send you the file in an e-mail. Maybe I was able to access it from my IP address because I'm in Japan and at an academic IP address that has been registered with them. CJ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
