The prehistory of cultural-historical theory
pp. 91-125
in: , Rethinking cultural-historical theory, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
The chapter offers an account of the prehistory of Vygotsky's theory. More concretely, the chapter provokes an engagement with the conceptual and methodological issues that arose in Vygotsky's creative development before the emergence of cultural-historical theory. Here is analyzed the shift in Vygotsky's world-view orientation from subjectivism to natural-scientific, objective analysis of consciousness. Having passed through reflexology and behaviorism, Vygotsky never identified himself fully with these approaches due to his humanitarian education. It is proposed that Vygotsky's effort to transcend the divide between objectivism and subjectivism as an essential dimension of the crisis in psychology can be examined as an attempt to overcome contradictions in his own research.