Re: basic points of agreement

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Wed, 1 May 1996 21:27:20 -0400

Am I right to infer that the contemporary U.S. appropriation of
cultural-historical theory represents an amalgam of European
critical-cultural theories with Soviet CHAT?

On refresher breaks from reading student papers, I have been
reading Gadamer for the first time (something like reading
Shakespeare for the first time not too long ago: AHA!
a suddenly more rich & profound understanding of what was
already intimately a part of one's experiencing & knowing, etc)
- & I'm struck by the similarities between phenomenology
& Mike's list of points of agreement among CH psychologists.
Situatedness, historical embeddedness, the whole interpretive turn in
social science accounting. Yeah, we can find warrants for these
positions in Vygotsky, but, other than goals & mediational means &
the genetic method, they are not positions that are elaborated or
emphasized in V - are they? And does someone know of an historical
overview of the theoretical traditions that have crossed & converged over
the last 100 years or so?

- Judy

Judy Diamondstone
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903

diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
.................................................