On the other hand, the translator of Shpet says "... from looking over the list of lecture courses of the Historical-Philosophical Faculty of Moscow University between 1905 and 1918 (covering Vygotsky's student days), which contain throughout German language bibliographic data on philosophy."
So I wonder if Shpet really was the mediator in Vygotsky's receipt of the Classical German (v Humboldt and Herder) views on language and thought. Or perhaps he is getting it directly, or from Marx and Plekhanov? Unfortunately, I can find nothing by Potebnya in English.
BTW, if you liked the v Humboldt quote, here is the context: http://marx.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/vhumboldt-wilhelm.htm
Andy mike cole wrote:
*Andy is a big Goethe fan, and in my limited way, so am I. I always liked his statement "**Everything has been thought of* before, but the problem is to think of it again." So Vygotsky learned it all from Shpet but too chicken to make that public, and Shpet probably learned a lot from Potebnya, and von Humboldt said it all before any of them, and so on. And if you were to ask the people they "got it from" those geniuses would all say that the new kid on the block got it wrong. We are all naives standing on the shoulders of other naives. It can be annoying. It only gets really irritating when people act like they are levitating and wondering about why those around them are standing on the ground, watching the sheep grazing.
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