Vygotsky and Spinoza

The Unity of Intellect and Will: Vygotsky and Spinoza

Jerome Bruner points out in his prologue to the first volume of the English translation of The Collected Works that Vygotsky flirts with the idea that language creates free will. This paper attempts to consider the influence of the Dutch seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza on Vygotsky. An account of Spinoza's anti-Cartesian conception of will is given, to which Vygotsky recognises his indeb...

Stardrives and Spinoza

There are several senses in which one may speak of limits in relation to Physics. For the purposes of this essay, it is most useful to begin with the technological limitations of practical human activity. In this context, Physics both provides positive and negative information. Physical laws tell us how to achieve some goals, and informs us that others are forever out of reach. An excellent his...

Whorf and Vygotsky Revisited

Psychologists often speak about language and meaning in terms of individual "words" that label "things" in the world. Such expressions emerge not only in casual speech, but also pervade the scholarly literature. Influential works such as Roger Brown's (1958) Words and Things lend support to this tendency in their titles, if not always in their detailed argu ments. Speaking in this way perpetuat...

Spinoza Today: The Current State of Spinoza Scholarship

Vygotsky and intersubjectivity

Lev Vygotsky’s statement on the development of the higher psychological functions— from the interpsychological form to the intrapsychological form—is discussed in the article. I describe the changing of Vygotsky’s interest from nonverbal to verbal communication and his emphasis on verbal communication as an only kind of interpsychological function. I then analyze works that show the importance ...