Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research

Volume 4

Series editors
Marilyn Fleer, Peninsula Campus, Monash University, Frankston, Victoria,
Australia
Fernando González Rey, Department of Psychology, University of Brasilia,
Brasília -DF, Brazil
Elena Kravtsova, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia
Nikolai Veresov, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Frankston, Australia
There is growing interest in the work of LS Vygotsky internationally, but also in
finding new ways and perspectives for advancing cultural-historical theory for
solving contemporary problems. Although Vygotsky has become one of the most
influential scholars in education and psychology today, there is still a need for
serious studies of his work because so much remains unexamined.
The books in this series draw on the collected works of Vygotsky as a primary
source of authority. They go beyond secondary sources and discuss Vygotsky’s
original ideas in the context of a system of concepts or through the elaboration and
theorisation of research findings so that contemporary problems can be addressed in
new ways.
This series collectively brings together under one umbrella a more equal
representation of works from scholars across both the Northern and Southern
continents. In the context of a large volume of contributions to cultural-historical
theorisation and the empirical work from North America, there is an urgent need for
making visible the works of scholars from countries who reside in countries other
than North America.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13559

Manolis Dafermos

Rethinking
Cultural-Historical Theory
A Dialectical Perspective to Vygotsky

123
Manolis Dafermos
Department of Psychology
University of Crete
Rethymnon
Greece

ISSN 2520-1530 ISSN 2520-1549 (electronic)

Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research
ISBN 978-981-13-0190-2 ISBN 978-981-13-0191-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0191-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018938652

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This book is dedicated to my daughter,
Veroniki
Preface

This book grew out of an interest in understanding cultural-historical theory as a

developing research program in the wider context of the history of science and
philosophy from a dialectical perspective. The book focuses on the neglected di-
alectical underpinnings of Vygotsky’s theory. Vygotsky explicitly stated his
commitment to dialectics:
We are dialecticians. We do not at all think that the developmental path of science follows a
straight line, and if it has had zigzags, returns, and loops we understand their historical
significance and consider them to be necessary links in our chain, inevitable stages of our
path… (Vygotsky 1997, p. 336)

A dialectical way of thinking has been marginalized in the western academy.

Western scholars and philosophers tend to examine dialectical thinking as irrele-
vant, vague, and problematic. The roots of the negative stance to dialectic can be
found in the “cult of empiricism” (Toulmin and Leary 1985) and the “enduring
dominance of positivism” (Breen and Darlaston-Jones 2008) in psychology as well
as in other disciplines. Additionally, it should be mentioned that schematic and
formalist interpretations of dialectics doubtless contribute to the reproduction of its
negative reception in western Academia.
The idea of writing a book on the dialectical perspective of Vygotsky’s theory
emerged at the ISCAR Summer University for Ph.D. students in 2014. My teaching
in the Master’s program “Cultural-historical theory and the activity approach in
education” in Moscow State University of Psychology and Education offered me
encouraging feedback on the main ideas of this project. I am also grateful to my
students in the Department of Psychology at the University of Crete who have taken
the course on cultural-historical psychology for their communication with me and
their insightful feedback.

vii
viii Preface

I shared my ideas on cultural-historical theory with colleagues and students in

different Brazilian universities such as the Pontifical Catholic University of São
Paulo (PUC-SP), University of Sao Paulo, UNICAMP, the University of Sao
Francisco (Itatiba, Sao Paulo State), the Universidade Federal De Goias, and the
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The main ideas of the book were presented at
ISCAR (International Society for Cultural-historical Activity Research) symposium
in Université Laval (Quebec), at the 16th Biennial conference of ISTP (International
Society for Theoretical Psychology) in Coventry, at Moscow State University of
Psychology and Education and at the Center of Research on Activity at the
Development and Learning of University of Helsinki, and at the 5th
International ISCAR Congress in Quebec. Traveling across countries and conti-
nents, the main ideas of this book were further elaborated and developed.
The gist of the book has been formed not only on the basis of a reflection of
Vygotsky’s writings, but as a result of engaging in dialogue with various people.
Greek poet George Seferis wrote that “Our words are the children of many people.”
My understanding of dialectics was formed on the basis of the theory of my teacher
and mentor Viktor Alekseevich Vazjulin who had the greatest influence on my
work and my life. Engaging in deep dialogue and inquiry with my mentor and the
members of the scientific “school of Logic of History”, Dimitrios Patelis, Periklis
Pavlidis, Triantafyllos Meimaris, Vladimir Koschel, Michael Vazjulin, Genadyi
Dobkin, Svetlana Scharapova, Alexander Harlamenko, Alexander Segal, Michael
Chepel, Luis Filipe Rafael Gomes helped me clarify important aspects of dialectics.
I profited enormously from discussions on cultural-historical theory with Nikolai
Veresov, Vitaly Rubtsov, Fernanda Liberali, Maria Cecilia Camargo Magalhães,
Fernando Gonzalez Rey, Viktor Zaretskii, Anna Smolka, Marcia A. Amador
Mascia, Ernst Schraube, Morten Nissen, Niklas Alexander Chimirri, Anna
Stetsenko, Mohamed Elhammoumi, Seth Chaiklin, Peter Jones, Anna Chronaki,
Pentti Hakkarainen, Marylyn Fleer, Elena Kravtsova, Milda Bredikyte, Michalis
Kontopodis, Athanasios Marvakis, Marios Pourkos, Sylvie Barma, Olga Rubtsova,
Eugene Matusov, Sofia Triliva, Yrjö Engeström, Annalisa Sannino, Fyodor
Vasilyuk, Alexander Suvorov, Katerina Plakitsi, Gordana Jovanović, Laure
Kloetzer, Ilias Karasavidis, Serena Veggetti, Eleni Katsarou, Georgios Polakis,
Gisele Toassa, Thomas Teo, Marilyn Fleer, Bert Van Oers, Harry Daniels, Adair
Mendes Nacarat, Daniela Dias dos Anjos, and others. Based on our discussions on
Vygotsky’s theory and ways of its further development at the time of my visit as a
visiting professor at University of Sao Paulo, UNICAMP and University of Sao
Francisco, Márcia A. Amador Mascia, Daniela Dias dos Anjos, Ana Luiza B.
Smolka (2017) have published a collective volume.
I would like to express my deep thanks to Nikolai Veresov, Anna Stetsenko, Jan
Derry for reading parts of the book and making their comments and suggestions for
revisions.
I am thankful to Frances Wildey for reading carefully the draft of my manuscript
and making corrections.
Preface ix

Finally, I would like to thank also Marylyn Fleer, Nikolai Veresov, Elena
Kravtsova, and Fernando Gonzalez Rey, the editors of the series “Perspectives in
Cultural-Historical Research” of Springer Publisher for their confidence in me and
the unknown reviewers of the proposal and the manuscript of this book for their
valuable comments and constructive suggestions.
Of course, the errors that remain are my own.

Rethymnon, Greece Manolis Dafermos

References

Breen, L. & Darlaston-Jones, D. (2008). Moving Beyond the Enduring Dominance of Positivism
in Psychological Research: An Australian Perspective. 43rd Australian psychological society
Annual Conference. http://researchonline.nd.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context
=arts_conference. Accessed 29 August 2017.
Mascia, M. A. A., Dias dos Anjos, D., & Smolka, A. B. (orgs.) (2017). Leituras de Vigotski-
Debates Interdisciplinares. Sao Paulo: Mercado de Letras Publisher.
Toulmin, S., & Leary, D. E. (1985). The cult of empiricism in psychology, and beyond.
In S. Koch & D. E. Leary (Eds.), A century of psychology as science (pp. 594–617). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The historical meaning of the crisis of psychology. In R. Rieber, &
J. Wolloc (Eds.), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 3, pp. 233–344). New York,
London: Plenum Press.
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 The Historical and Scientific Background to the Genesis
of Cultural-Historical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Societal Change and New Theory Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Psychology: The Crisis of a “Problematic” Discipline . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.1 A Positivist View on the Crisis in Psychology . . . . . . . 22
2.2.2 Does Vitalism Offer the Cure for the Crisis in
Psychology? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 24
2.2.3 The Crisis in Psychology from the Perspective
of Gestalt Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 25
2.2.4 A Neo-Kantian Perspective on Crisis in Psychology . .. 27
2.2.5 The Crisis of European Sciences Through the Prism
of Phenomenology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 29
2.2.6 The Crisis of Objectivistic and Subjectivist
Psychology in Russia and the Soviet Union . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2.7 The Crisis in Soviet Psychology and Philosophy . . . . . 38
2.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3 A Preliminary Sketch of Vygotsky’s Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 53
3.1 How to Define Vygotsky’s Theory? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 53
3.2 The Core Subject Matters in Vygotsky’s Creative
Laboratory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 55
3.3 The Periodization of Vygotsky’s Creative Development ...... 59
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...... 64

xi
xii Contents

4 Exploring the Philosophical Underpinnings of Cultural-Historical

Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
4.1 Preliminary Notes on the Philosophical Underpinnings
of Vygotsky’s Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
4.2 Spinoza and Vygotsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 69
4.3 Hegel and Vygotsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 73
4.4 On the Significance of Feuerbach’s Philosophy
for the Formation of Vygotsky’s Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 80
4.5 On the Relationships Between Cultural-Historical
Psychology and Marxism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 82
4.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 85
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 86
5 The Prehistory of Cultural-Historical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.1 Vygotsky’s Childhood and Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.2 “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3 From Art to Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.4 Pedagogical Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.5 Psychology of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.6 Consciousness as a Problem of Psychology of Behavior . . . . . . 109
5.7 Vygotsky’s Engagement in Defectology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.8 The Crisis in Psychology: Rethinking Theory and
Methodology of Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.9 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6 The Primary Appearance of Cultural-Historical Psychology . . . . . . 127
6.1 The Analysis of an Instrumental Act as a Starting Point
of a “New Psychology” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.2 Concept Development as a Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6.3 Vygotsky’s Criticism of Piaget’s Theory of Egocentric
Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6.4 Psychology in Terms of Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.5 Three Lines in the Development of Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.6 Vygotsky’s Expedition in Central Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7 The Formation of Cultural-Historical Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.1 The Concept of Psychological Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.2 Everyday and Scientific Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
7.3 The Concept of the Zone of Proximal Development . . . . . . . . . 165
7.4 Pedology and Vygotsky’s Searching for a Synthetic Science
of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Contents xiii

7.4.1 The Emergence of Pedology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

7.4.2 Vygotsky’s Involvement in Pedology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.5 Elaborating a Dialectical Account on the Drama
of Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.6 The Concept of “Perezhivanie” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.7 Toward the Problem of Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.8 Vygotsky’s Unfinished Project on the Investigation
of Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
7.9 Cultural-Historical Theory from a Long-Term Perspective
of the Development of Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
7.10 Vygotsky and Kharkov School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
7.11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
8 Developing Creativity in Science: The Case of Vygotsky . . . . . . . . 215
8.1 New Perspectives in Creativity Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
8.2 A Brief Sketch of Vygotsky’s Creative Life Course . . . . . . . . . 220
8.3 Social Commitment and the Production of New
Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
8.4 Crises and Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
8.5 On the Significance of the Collaborative Action . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
8.6 Dialogue and Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
8.7 Toward Unity of Theory and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
8.8 From Classic to Romantic Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
8.9 Imagining the Future and Societal Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
8.10 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
9 Developing a Dialectical Perspective on Vygotsky’s Theory . . . . . . 243
9.1 A Short Historical Sketch of Dialectics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
9.2 The Conceptualization of Dialectics by Vygotsky . . . . . . . . . . . 251
9.3 Exploring the Relation Between Essence and Phenomena . . . . . 254
9.4 Exploring the Ascent from the Abstract to the Concrete . . . . . . 256
9.5 Exploring the Relations Between the Logical
and Historical Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
9.6 The Discussion on the Dialectics of Marx’s “Das Kapital”
in the USSR and Its Implications for Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . 267
9.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
10 Epilogue: The Relevance of Vygotsky’s Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305