Re: originality
Jacques Haenen (J.Haenen who-is-at ivlos.ruu.nl)
Mon, 9 Oct 1995 18:00:28 +0100
Hello Mike,
I wanted to stress that the strenght of the cultural-historical
'research program' should be found in the way Vygotsky and his
followers conceptualized the complex structure of human mental
activity by 'interdefining' such common notions as culture, history,
mediation and activity in relation to socio- and ontogenesis.
E.g., from 1930 onwards Vygotsky studied the interweaving of higher
psychological functions into 'psychological systems.' Vygotsky stated
that the course of socio- and ontogenesis is not so much determined
by the changing structures of seperate functions (memory, learning,
etc), but by the formation of new psychological systems that
incorporate these functions. I think it is in this sense, that
Vygotsky was highly original and ahead of his time.
Jac