Dot,
As far as consciousness I would agree - I did get the sense Leontev side
stepped the issue more than anything else. I mean would Vygotsky say it was
"unqualitive" or it either exists or it doesn't. My understanding was
Vygotsky was on the chopping block so to speak because of the emphasis he
gave consciousness.
In this sense I would see AT of Leontev as one, maybe the only one possible,
application of Vygotsky's ideas. Others would be cultural-historical,
socio-cultural etc. What is interesting with AT or Soviet Psychology is the
dialectical process of critique and appropriation. Both, Kozulin argues,
were apart of early AT. Kind of like Vygotsky's early works and the role of
Pavlov. A long history as with El'konin and Davydov appropriating - bringing
forth - ideas of Vygotsky that were ignored since his death. Even now, the
Golden Key, for example there is this tension between the ideas of Vygotsky
and Leontev.
I would tend to see CHAT as this thing that importantly has certain
contradictions within itself. This is not bad in my view - a potential for
the dialectical process of critique and appropriation. It is not necessarily
that the cultural - historical - or Activity components fit nicely together
as a puzzle - but rather involve certain tensions within itself. In this
sense they don't seem so much like one line of theory, but it also does not
seem like they can be understood as 3 lines so to speak. A long history of
critique and appropriation where they can only be understood relationally.
The ZPD is a nice example, I think, because it was appropriated in the U.S.
from Vygotsky, but not necessarily so in Russia. Well, it turns out
Vygotsky appropriated the concept from McCarthy - an american. But even so
this idea has been appropriated into the Russian context in the last years.
Was not one of the Vygotsky conferences you planned focused on the ZPD?
I would argue though with Vygotsky, Leontev, Luria, El'konin, Zaporzhets,
Galperin, Davydov, Rubenshtein - that there is this Marxist - dialectical
materialist - philosophical base that is important in grasping to understand
their works. It can also, I believe, give one a more open, diverse
theorizing of Marxist dialectics that is often not made explicit.
Nate
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