“Phenomenological Factors in Vygotsky’s Mature Psychology” (original) (raw)
Related papers
Vygotsky’s Psychology-Philosophy: A Metaphor for Language Theory and Learning
Journal of Teaching and Learning, 2006
Many texts comprise the Vygotskian publication industry, yet few of them have touched specifically on Vygotsky's psychology-philosophy, as does the present volume. Robbins's analysis deeply probes into specific issues only touched on by other authors, such as Daniels (1996), Valsiner (1998), and van der Veer and Valsiner (1991). The author firmly places the work of Vygotsky in historical, cultural and linguistic context, and intently focuses on Vygotsky's background, providing arguments from multifarious sources, then relates Vygotsky's ideas to Chomskian thought, and Second Language Acquisition. The book is divided into a preface and six chapters. In the preface, Robbins states that her work introduces Vygotsky and his theories of language. The author here also informs us that she will provide many citations from the Vygotskian literature. This is a promise kept, to the great benefit of the reader. In the first chapter, the opening page orients the reader, by stating directly the author's bias towards Vygotsky's cultural historical approach (true to the origins of Vygotskian theory, according to Robbins) as opposed to the sociocultural approach advocated by Wertsch that predominates in North America. Later in this chapter, Robbins states a fact that is rarely mentioned in the Vygotskian literature, but something that absolutely needs to be addressed: that translations from the original Russian to English could be problematic in interpreting Vygotsky's works. In relation to this, Robbins offers textual evidence from Davydov and Radzikhovskii (1985), which argues that because of possible Russian-English translation errors, it is essential that one consider historical context to understand Vygotsky's ultimate objective. In strong relation to these translation problems, the author cautions and demonstrates that, through examining key terms in Russian and English, we can conclude that Russian and Western mentalities differ. Robbins then offers a convincing example from Koltsova (1996) on the key terms 'self' and 'I'. Most importantly in this chapter, Robbins introduces Humboldt's influence on Vygotsky, stressing that while trying to comprehend Vygotskian thought, Humboldt, rather than Descartes, should be the starting point. Finally, throughout Chapter 1, the author displays her facility with the ideas of Spinoza, Marx, Humboldt, Chomsky, Fodor, and Durkheim, setting the stage for Robbins's comprehensive treatment of Vygotskian thought. In Chapter 2, Robbins presents an excellent overview of Vygotsky's psychological-philosophical theory. She begins by explaining that many of Vygotsky's
Vygotsky's "Thought" in Linguistic Meaning
Central to Vygotsky's theory of language acquisition, the paper claims, is his complex notion of 'thought' straddling as it does mental events from pre-predicative thinking to the full social conceptuality of modern culture. In support of this reading the paper foregrounds two features in Vygotsky's theory, his social gradualism, characterized by his emphasis on historical cultural processes, and the prominence in his argument of mental resemblance relations in the development of the child's mastery of meaning. Vygotsky is shown to defend the position that there is an important link between nonverbal cognition and language, between perception and word. This, the paper argues, makes Vygotsky's enterprise compatible with a semantics of imaginability, a claim backed up by his observation that in language it is the imaginary apple rather than the real one that is decisive. As a psychological system, the imagination certainly plays a crucial role in one of Vygotsky's central concerns: concept formation from syncretism via endophasy towards mature conceptuality. The paper concludes with Vygotsky's view of linguistic meaning as generalized reflection of reality in contrast to definitional conceptions which sever the concept from its 'natural connections'.
Vygotsky, Ilyenkov and the Problem of Correlation Between Thought and Word
Journal of Psycholinguistic, 2021
The article deals with the key provisions of Vygotskian theory of historical development of mind and discusses the problem of the relationship between thought and word as a key problem of psycholinguistics. The main methodological principle of Vygotskian theory is the principle of monism. All higher mental functions are characterized by social origin and unified structure, in which the “defining whole” is the sign. The history of human mind can be represented as the natural history of signs. Vygotskian theory is not “word-centered”, since it is his developments that allow us to interpret the word not only as the crown of the development and the unity of communication and generalization, but also as a transformed form of activity. The problem of the relationship between thought and word is a psycholinguistic projection of the body-mind problem, the methodologically correct solution of which should be based on the “image – process” opposition introduced by A.N. Leontiev. This oppositi...
JOURNAL OF TEACHING AND LEARNING, , VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2004
Many texts comprise the Vygotskian publication industry, yet few of them have touched specifically on Vygotsky’s psychology-philosophy, as does the present volume. Robbins’s analysis deeply probes into specific issues only touched on by other authors, such as Daniels (1996), Valsiner (1998), and van der Veer and Valsiner (1991). The author firmly places the work of Vygotsky in historical, cultural and linguistic context, and intently focuses on Vygotsky’s background, providing arguments from multifarious sources, then relates Vygotsky’s ideas to Chomskian thought, and Second Language Acquisition.
Vygotskian implications: On the meaning and its brain
A keynote paper originally presented at the International Conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Lev Vygotsky (“The Cultural-Historical Approach: Progress in Human Sciences and education”; Moscow, 21–24 October, 1996) and actually adapted for a publication. About a basic dilemma of Vygotsky’s theory: How superior mental phenomena may be trea ted as functionning of both brain structures and meaning structures at the sa me time while latters are of an inter-individual character as opposed to the intra-individual character of the formers. Arguments are derived from various sources (Vygotsky school’s theory of functional organs, Gibson’s ecological theory of perception, ethology’s empirical data about territorial behaviour of populations and Szentágothai’s model of organizing neuronal modules) for transcending mainstream considerations based exclusively on individual organism both by going beyond the individual (toward a supra-individual structure) and beyond the organism (toward an extra-organismic one). The paper presents for the K. Popper’s “World 3’ a possible monistic interpretation that derives not merely meanings but their logical structures as well from the functioning of supra-individual economic structures instead of that of the individual’s brain structures.
Evolución conceptual y cómputo del significado: Pensamiento y lenguaje en Vigotsky
Cognitiva, 1993
Vygotsky's approach to the construction of concepts contrasts with the models which are commonly used in Artificial Intelligence. We shall present the main ideas of Vygotsky's work on the relations between thought and language, and the main steps of conapt building in a child's mind. We shall compare this approach to those of other psychologists in the twentieth's century. We shall outline what nzakes this approach so modern and a potential basis for computing systems for the representation of meaning linked to learning and adaptation. We propose some architectural and structral choices for such a system. We hope this attempt will allow the testingof some hypotheres in the field of cognitive psychology. Evolución conceptual y cómputo del significado. Pensamiento y lenguaje en Vigotsky Resumen El enfoque de Vigotsky sobre la elaboración de conceptos contrasta con los modelos más empleados en Inteligencia Artificial Presentaremos las principales ideas de la obra de V igotsky acerca de las relaciones entre pensamiento y lenguaje, y los principales estadios de la construcción de conceptos en la nzente infantil Compararemos este enfoque con los de otros psidlogos del siglo veinte. Subrayaremos lo que hace a este enfoque tan moderno y una base potencial para los sistemas arti ficales, de cara a una representación del significado vinculada al aprendizaje y la adaptación. Proponemos algunas alternativas estructurales y de arquitectura para un sistema con estas caracterírticas. Confíamos en que este intento permita con estas características. Confíamos en que este intento permita la puesta a prueba de algunas hipltesis en el campo de la psicología cognitiva.
The Generation of Higher Mental Functions in Vygotsky's Concepts of Development and Contradiction
In this paper we argue that Vygotsky's psychological research paradigm is a research epistemology, methodology, and ontology of theory and practice that attempts to build a psychology grounded within the social historical and cultural setting in which he/she evolved. Vygotsky's whole enterprise was to establish a concrete human psychology committed to investigate how human nature changes, conceiving human development not just as quantitative, cumulative and linear, but also as qualitative, transformative change. In this outlook, contradiction leads to new contradictions, not necessarily "equilibrium". The dialectical concepts of contradiction, development and transformation were fundamental to Vygotsky's psychology. Vygotsky never had time, of course, to realize the desire expressed in his critique of the crisis of psychology that psychology needs its own Das Kapital. This paper will outline the main features of Vygotsky's dialectical approach to understanding human higher mental functions.Two Vygotskian concepts are discussed in depth. The concept of development is conceived not only as quantitative, but also qualitative change, and the concept of contradiction were viewed as the engine of both natural and historical change. Development and contradiction are pictured together as organizing, creative forces that drive the higher mental functions and activities. By bringing development and contradiction in conjunction with cultural historical theory and activity theory, we aim to offer a picture of the Soviet psychologist's indebtedness to historical dialectical materialist philosophy.
BEYOND SITUATED ACTION: A NEO-VYGOTSKIAN THEORY OF THINKING AND LANGUAGE INTERNALISATION
BEYOND SITUATED ACTION: A NEO-VYGOTSKIAN THEORY OF THINKING AND LANGUAGE INTERNALISATION, 2008
This thesis presents work toward a novel theory of human thinking. I argue that through ontogenesis the origins of cognition in situated-action are scaffolded by language and, in the process, the functional architecture of cognition, through a series of developmental changes, becomes dramatically restructured. The theory is developed with reference to several existing attempts to come to terms with this process, in cognitive modelling, philosophy and theoretical psychology. To test and develop these theories a novel approach to cognitive modelling is developed that allows current thinking in this area to be tested with greater clarity than was previously possible. My approach builds upon the work of Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett, Merlin Donald and, ultimately, Lev Vygotsky, but it goes further in developing a detailed model of the process by which language (speech) is internalised in order to play a functionally restructuring role in human cognition. In particular I emphasize how the internal and external dimensions of language interact over different time scales. Further I argue it can be used to help explain how truly human thinking is born, and some of what is unique about that thinking. An extensive historical survey is undertaken of the context in which some of the major previous theories of thinking have been developed and I use this to assess the reasons these models have only entertained a minor role for natural language in cognitive architecture. I also use this historical backdrop to explain why only limited previous work has been done with cognitive models in this area. Two cognitive robotics models are presented and discussed that shed light on how language may be internalised. These are used to develop a theoretical model of language internalisation more generally, and the stages of cognitive reorganisation this entails. The thesis is completed by the use of the new model to tackle some significant problems in recent literature on the scientific understanding of consciousness. I argue this model can also help to explain findings about certain disorders of thought from the psychopathological literature.
Vygotsky on Meaning Making Processes
Vygotsky's work is extensive and covers many aspects of the development of children's meaning-making processes in social and cultural contexts. However, his main focus is on the examination of the unification of speaking and thinking processes. His investigation centers on the analysis of the entity created by this unification -an internal speaking/thinking system with meaning at its center. Despite the fact that this speaking/thinking system is at the center of Vygotsky's work, it remains little explored. This article relies on Vygotsky's writings, particularly Thinking and Speech, to describe his examination of the speaking/thinking system. To analyze it he derives the unit -znachenie slova -"meaning through language." In Thinking and Speech Vygotsky describes the origins and development of znachenie slova as a unit of the speaking/thinking system. He also details his genetic, functional, and structural analysis of the processes through which children internalize meaning in social interaction and organize it in an internal, psychological system. The foundation of this system is the child's ability to generalize by using symbolic representation in meaningful communication. Vygotsky's analysis of the structure of generalization in the speaking/thinking system is central to his examination of how children make meaning of their sociocultural worlds.