Tran Duc Thao, a wise and learned scientist and an eminent Marxist philoso pher, begins this treatise on the origins of language and consciousness with a question: "One of the principal difficulties of the problem of the origin of consciousness is the exact determination of its beginnings. Precisely where must one draw the line between the sensori-motor psychism of animals and the conscious psychism that we see developing in man?" And then he cites Karl Marx's famous passage about 'the bee and the architect' from Capital: ...
Read More
Tran Duc Thao, a wise and learned scientist and an eminent Marxist philoso pher, begins this treatise on the origins of language and consciousness with a question: "One of the principal difficulties of the problem of the origin of consciousness is the exact determination of its beginnings. Precisely where must one draw the line between the sensori-motor psychism of animals and the conscious psychism that we see developing in man?" And then he cites Karl Marx's famous passage about 'the bee and the architect' from Capital: ... what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in the imagination before he erects it in reality. At the end of every labor process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination of the laborer at its commencement. (Capital, Vol. I, p. 178, tr. Moore and Aveling) Thao follows this immediately with a second question: "But is this the most elementary form of consciousness?" Thus the conundrum concerning the origins of consciousness is posed as a circle: if human consciousness pre supposes representation (of the external reality, of mental awareness, of actions, of what it may), and if this consciousness emerges first with the activity of production using tools, and if the production of tools itself pre supposes representation - that is, with an image of what is to be produced in the mind of the producer - then the conditions for the origins of human
Read Less
Add this copy of Investigations Into the Origin of Language and to cart. $97.50, good condition, Sold by Salish Sea Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bellingham, WA, UNITED STATES, published 1984 by Springer-Verlag Publishing.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good; Hardcover, Missing Jacket; Withdrawn library copy with the standard library markings; Moderate wear to the covers; Library stamps to the endpapers; Text pages are clean & unmarked; The binding is good with a straight spine; This book will be shipped in a sturdy cardboard box with foam padding; Medium Format (8.5"-9.75" tall); Blue cloth covers with title in gold lettering along spine; 1984, Springer-Verlag Publishing; 244 pages; "Investigations into the Origin of Language and Consciousness (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science), " by TrÔøΩ n Duc Thao, et al.
