[Xmca-l] Re: Where is Marx in the work and thought of Vygotsky? by Lucien Seve

[Andy Blunden]

Just a couple of remarks on this very interesting paper:

(1) When I read "Thought & Language" (the 1962 translation) 
- my first Vygotsky, I instantly recognised as a work of 
Marxism, and one informed by Hegel to boot. Which verifies 
Seve's obvious point that cutting out the explicit 
references to Marx does not remove the Marxist character of 
the work.

(2) Seve (in my view) completely misunderstands Hegel's idea 
of "concept", attributing to Hegel the analytical view which 
Vygotsky also used up until 1931, at which point he came in 
contact with Hegelians. Marx made numerous "corrections" to 
Hegel, but the form of the concept was not one of those.

(3) The meaning of Taetigkeit, Handlung, Aktivitaet, Praxis, 
etc., the various words in German, English and Russian, for 
"activity" is not cut and dry - different writers use 
different words differently. But despite the importance of 
the "productivist" interpretation of "Praxis" in 
anthropology and historiography, it has always seemed to me 
that the more general meaning of "purposive (social, 
artefact mediated) activity" is more appropriate for 
Psychology, and the meaning Vygotsky had in mind. It seems 
that Leontyev perversely agrees with this because of his 
spiteful attack on Vygotsky's supposed "idealism" (See JREEP 
v. 43, 2005) for not understanding "Praxis" in this 
productivist way.

Still, very welcome article. Pity some of us Anglophones, 
like me, are so ignorant of the French language.

Andy

------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
On 30/06/2019 11:08 am, Andy Blunden wrote:
>
> Attachment may be of interest to people on this list.
>
> Andy
>
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> *Andy Blunden*
> https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
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