Part 11 (2/2)

Self-constitution inand mediated practical experiences is different from self-constitution in direct forms of praxis

In direct praxis, the wholeness of the being is externalized

But it is the partial being-partial in respect to the huical and intellectual reality-that is projected in mediated practical experiences The narrow, limited, and immediate scope of direct human activity explains why no mediation, or only accidentalrun, mediation results in the severed relation between individuals and their social and natural environments As we shall see, this fact has i chain ofindividual from the object to be worked upon, be this object raw hts, or other experiences

It is not easy to immediately realize the pervasiveness of mediation and its effects on human activity and self-constitution People introduce all the intermediaries they need in order to maintain efficiency Because we notice only the immediate layer hich we come into contact-the tool we use or the object we act upon-we have difficulty in recognizing the pervasiveness of mediation Theone finished product is far beyond our direct involvement

Division, in the context of labor, means to break a task into smaller parts that are easier to rationalize, understand, and execute Division engenders the specialization of eachelement To specialize h which skills and knowledge pertinent to activity segh labor division are acquired Whether division of physical work or of intellectual activity, at the end of the process there is a large number of components which have to be assembled Even more important, the quantity of pieces, the order in which various pieces coether, and the inter does not work, it is better to find out before the entire product is asseration aspect, which requires the eleher efficiency is not arbitrary The goal is to arrive at coherent units of simpler work, which in some ways are like the letters of an alphabet In thisdifferent words by comentation of work takes place concomitant with the effort to conceive of tools appropriate to each segment in order to ensure the desired efficiency In effect, to specialize means to be aware of and toto the desired result-the final word, in keeping with our example Conversely, what so, in medicine, physics, mathematics, electronics, computer science, transportation-is the result of the propensity of each ender a need for further mediations, which reflect expectations for efficiency Sied, beco itself more differentiated

The efficiency reached in specialization is higher than that of direct action and of low levels of labor division With each new specialization of aelee, in the forain This body of knowledge reflects the complexity of the task and the scale in which it is exercised

For instance, stones (the Latin calcula) were used to represent quantities (just as the early English used stone as a ht) Over the centuries, this practice led to the body of knowledge known as calculus and to coherent applications in various huave way to easier methods of calculation: the abacus, as well as to marks recorded on bone, shell, leather, and paper, to a nue starts at the materiality and heads towards the abstract-that is, frons

Computers were invented as a tool for calculation, as well as for other activities They are the result of the labor of philosophers, logicians, ed calculation froic, binary nu eleh orders of y has led to n and production of chips; infor at various levels; ration as ; visualization techniques; the creation ofthe illiterate input, and on and on This development exemplifies the active character of each mediation, especially the open- endedness of the mediation process

As an insertion, nitive awareness it stie, tools, and even ideas, the individual gets a different perspective on the practical experience The distance introduced through mediation, between actions and results, is one of space-the lever, not the hand, touches the stone to be moved-and duration-the time it takes to execute an action With each inserted third, ie, with each mediation, seeds are planted for ill eventually result in a totally new category of practical experiences: the conception of plans

The power of insertion is actually that of acquiring a sense and a direction for the future

Myth aselee performs its role in a particular way Tools (such as pulleys, levers, gears, etc) extend the are extends the coordinating capability of humans

Words, no matter hoell articulated, will not turn the stone or lift the trunk of the fallen tree They can be used to describe the problem, to enlist help, to discuss how the task can be accoible the sequence of acco was developed, coordination was extended to apply from those physically present to people who could read, or to who skills

Language is in extension and succession of the pragmatic phase of immediate and direct appropriation of objects As Leonard Blooeneralization-observed, ”the division of labor () is due to language” Although different in nature froe is instru and es constituted in a practical experience thatnature of early words and early articulated thoughts derived from their practical condition: medium for self-constitution (the voice externalizes the anato sounds), and e of experience (pertinent to nature or to others in the group) Early words are a record of the self-awareness of the hu body parts and elementary actions They also reflect the relational nature of the practical experience of those constituting viable groups Researchers infer this froes, that point to an other, or to coalitions, or to danger What distinguished words fro the practical experience of appropriating a uniforarded as a sequence of animal representations, constitute what can be called a coherent ie of a small universe of human life They are an inventory of a sort-of fauna as opposed to humans, and as a reference to ani the i anis of man and woman, they also show that there is a third element to be considered: incipient iuage, even less a visual language, articulated in the Paleolithic But at Lascaux, Niaux, Altaes preserved in the caves along the Lena River in Russia, there are some patterns, such as the co-presence of bison and horses, and the hinted association with o beyond the iical ele entities They convey experience and preserve it in oral societies Magic is also a ic, in the pre-literacy context, inserts, between hu they cannot understand, control, or ta (actions, words, objects) that stands for the practical implications of this failure An a of what it takes to be protected froestures intended to scare away deh not without purpose, ered by events language could not account for Myth is a pre-text for action with a practical, experiential purpose Each myth contains rules for successful activity

The context in which language, as a con system, was structured was also the context of social ration in a cohesive social structure

In syncretic forms of social life, with low efficiency, and limited self-consciousness, there is little need for or possibility of mediation Once human nature was constituted in the reality of practical, ical relations, both labor division and mediation beca, processing skins, and sharing experience (in visual or verbal form) kept the human subject close to the object of work or human relation It is probably more in respect to the unknown and unpredictable that mediation, via priests and shaical practice Cave paintings, no less than cuneifor, constituted inters asserted their presence or questioned the presence of others

The centralized state, which is a late foranization, the church, and schools are all expressions of the same need to introduce in a world of differences ele power What we today call politics sis to the self-constitution of the individual as member of the politeia, the community By extension, politics means to effectively participate in the life of the coed enoric and ritual, and it evolved in participation in symbolic forms, such as mancipatio, conventions embodied in normative acts In the fraoal deteranization and representation, as well as the payment of taxes to support the , participation was an issue of survival; and survival, of natural condition, re ti elee, law mediates and justice, as much as God (actually a plurality of Gods and Goddesses) or wisdom, are inserted in community affairs

Differentiation and coordination

Mediation also i the immediate connection, to escape the domination of the present-shared time and space-and to discover relations characteristic of adjacency, ie, neighboring in time and space Adjacency can be in respect to the past, as expressed through the practice of keeping burial records It can also be in respect to the future The s-weather, game, children-exemplifies this aspect The notion of adjacency can pertain also to neighboring territories, inhabited by others involved in siardless of the type of adjacency, what is significant is the element that separates the i horizon of life required means to assimilate adjacency in the experience of continuous hu suchand disse-was established In orality-doe activity, and it had to be iht and preserved Accordingly, logic centered around the true-false distinction

Literate societies are societies which accept the value of speaking, writing, and reading, and which operate under the assu function

Mediation and the associated strategy of integration relied on language for differentiation of tasks and for coordination of resulting activities and products Language projects both a sense of belonging to and living in a context of life It e perceptions of space and tirated in their practical experiences and expressed in vocabulary, grae houses

Language is simultaneously a medium of uniformity and a means of differentiation Within continuously constituted language, individual expression and various non-standard uses of language (literary and poetic, probably the most notorious of these) are a fact of life In the practical constitution of language for religious or judicial purposes, or in order to give historic accounts of scientific phenomena, expression is not uniform

Neither is interpretation As we know from early attees used to describe relations of ownershi+p (of aniation, for instance The lunar calendar and the practical experience of navigation deters on the subject There is very little difference in the work of people who accounted for numbers of animals and nuuage allowed for expressions of differences Behind this change of language is the change of the people involved in various aspects of social life, ie, their projection into a world appropriated through practical experiences based on the human ability to differentiate-between useful and harmful, pleasant and unpleasant, similar and dissimilar