[Xmca-l] Re: XMCA-ers: Help needed finding LSV references to *First* and *Second* Signal Systems

[mike cole]

Peter-- If you google Luria "second signal system" you will come up with
several references. There is a copy at luria.ucsd.edu of his little book
with Yudovich on twins that uses that language.

It is not online (so far as i know), but Luria's article on "Speech
development and the formation of mental processes" in Cole and
Maltzman, *Handbook
of Soviet Psychology. *Basic Books, 1969 uses this term a lot.

I believe you will find an upsurge of usage associated with the late
1940's-50's when Vygotskians were under severe attack, there were special
"Pavlov sessions" where they had to recant their errors, and the use of
first and second signal system by Pavlov
allowed them a life line to orthodoxy.

mike

On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 10:43 AM, Peter Feigenbaum [Staff] <
pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I don't wish to detract in any way from the very serious and absolutely
> necessary discussion about male sensitivity (or should I say insensitivity)
> to the voices of the women inhabiting this list, but I sure could use your
> collective help with a small matter of scholarship. I am trying to locate
> any passages in LSV's Collected Works in English in which he refers to the
> *first* and *second* signal systems.
>
> My understanding is that Vygotsky considers the first signal system as the
> biologically inherited stimulus-response (S-R) system of reflexes as
> described by Pavlov, whereas the second signal system refers to the
> culturally inherited system of initiation-response that is particular to
> human conversational activity. I am working with the hypothesis that, in
> ontogenetic development, the first signal system becomes *domesticated* by,
> and ultimately subordinated to, the second signal system. That is, the S-R
> form of thinking becomes developmentally transformed into the
> Initiation-Response form of thinking that is characteristic of a person
> performing a listening-speaking turn in conversation.
>
> If any of the wonderful scholars on this list could help point this poor,
> stumbling colleague
> in the right direction, I would be most grateful.
>
> Warm wishes to all,
> Peter
>
> p.s. -- Let me take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to Mike
> for creating this list in the first place, and with it the opportunity for
> Vygotskian scholars the world over to share and discuss our ideas in an
> open and honest forum. For my part, I pledge to do my level best to raise
> my own consciousness where it is deficient so that my participation in this
> forum will be as inclusive and respectful to all of its participants as is
> humanly possible.
>
> --
> Peter Feigenbaum, Ph.D.
> Director,
> Office of Institutional Research
> <http://www.fordham.edu/academics/office_of_the_
> provos/office_of_institutio/index.asp>
> Fordham University
> Thebaud Hall-202
> Bronx, NY 10458
>
> Phone: (718) 817-2243
> Fax: (718) 817-3817
> email: pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu
>