What is it about?
Hardly anyone would dispute the value of freedom. But how mankind can achieve freedom is the main problem that culture has been thinking about for almost three thousand years. Is it possible to become free with the help of a psychologist who will explain to us how to master our own affects? Or can freedom be acquired only through a change in the social circumstances in which a person lives and acts? In other words, what can freedom give — deepening into one's own psychic life, abstract spiritual reflection in the style of Eastern religious practices, or the path to freedom lies through openness to the world, through the revolutionary transformations of this world? The first answer is Vygotsky’s answer. The second answer is Marx’s answer.
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Why is it important?
The article presents a fundamentally new look at the theoretical legacy of Vygotsky. The idea that Vygotsky was unable to implement the principles of Spinoza in his theory was argued in detail. And, on the contrary, it is shown that only based on Spinoza's materialistic monism Marxist principle of object-oriented activity can be put in the basis of the scientific theory of man and truly humanistic practice.
Perspectives
I hope that the article will initiate a serious theoretical discussion. The most sincere interest in Soviet / Russian psychology and philosophy alone will not bring any scientific fruits if it is limited to Vygotsky’s apology and attempts to eclectically mix Vygotsky’s ideas with philosophical dogmas popular in academic circles. Vygotsky was the founder of Soviet classical psychology and philosophy, but there were other names in the history of the latter. After Vygotsky there were such thinkers as A.N. Leontyev, N.A.Bershtein and E.V.Ilyenkov, who advanced the theory much further. Our task is not to look back at our predecessors, but to look ahead, beyond the horizon of future science.
Dr. Alexander Vladimirovitch Surmava
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Spinoza in the Science of Object-Oriented Activity, Mind Culture and Activity, October 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/10749039.2018.1533981.
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