The problem of practical intellect in the psychology of animals and the psychology of the child
pp. 513-537
in: Robert W. Rieber, David K. Robinson (eds), The essential Vygotsky, Berlin, Springer, 2004Abstract
At the very beginning of the development of child psychology, as a separate branch of psychological study, K. Stumpf attempted to define the character of the new scientific area, comparing it to botany. He said that C. Linnaeus, as is known, called botany a pleasant science. This is scarcely applicable to modern botany.... If any science deserves to be called pleasant, then it is specifically child psychology, the science of what is most dear, loved, and pleasant in the world, what we care for especially and what we are, for this reason, obliged to study and understand.