Preface to Köhler
pp. 175-194
in: Robert W. Rieber, Jeffrey Wollock (eds), The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Berlin, Springer, 1997Abstract
The development of scientific ideas and views proceeds dialectically. Opposite ideas concerning one and the same subject replace each other in the process of development of scientific knowledge and a new theory is often not a direct continuation of the preceding one but its negation, a dialectical negation, however. It includes all the positive achievements of its predecessor which have stood the test of time, but it itself strives in its constructions and conclusions to transcend its predecessor's boundaries and to conquer new and deeper layers of phenomena.