Abstract
Positivist-oriented psychology remains trapped in the formal account of generalization as a context (and content)-free procedure/process. Challenging the formal account of generalization, a dialectical perspective highlights the concrete, dynamic, historical connection between the general and the particular. It is proposed that a dialogue between Vygotsky and Davydov, who were both adherents of the dialectal tradition in psychology, can provide insights into conceptualizing generalization. A dialogue on dialectical understanding of generalization and its relation to changing societal practices is examined as a way to promote active, transformative subjectivity.
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Notes
- 1.
The Russian word “perezhivanie” refers to living through experience and working through it. The concept of perezhivanie was used by Vygotsky as a part of the system of concepts of cultural-historical theory. This concept expresses the dialectical, dynamic relation between personality, and the social environment which is part and parcel of personality development (Dafermos 2018). “In an emotional experience [perezhivanie] we are always dealing with an indivisible unity of personal characteristics and situational characteristics, which are represented in the emotional experience [perezhivanie]” (Vygotsky 1994: 342).
- 2.
L. Sakharov and L. Vygotsky developed the method of double stimulation for the study of the development of higher functions with the help of two types of stimuli: simple stimuli that cause a direct response and auxiliary means that help the subject to organize his behavior (Vygotsky 1987; Zavershneva and Van der Veer 2018).
- 3.
There is a fundamental difference between essentialism and the dialectical conceptualization of the relation between essence and phenomena. Essentialism is a metaphysical conceptualization of generalization based on the examination of specific properties of an object as stable, universal, and not dependent on the concrete context. From a dialectical perspective, essence is examined as a system of contradictory, dynamic, historical relations of a concrete, developing object, rather than an abstract, formal set of deconceptualized attributes. Moving from a purely descriptive, empirical study of phenomena to investigate their internal essence was a crucial issue for Vygotsky. “In theory, the internal essence of things and the external form of their manifestation do not coincide. “If the form of manifestation and the essence of things coincided directly, then all science would be superfluous”” (Vygotsky 1998: 188–189).
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Dafermos, M. (2019). Developing a Dialectical Understanding of Generalization: An Unfinalized Dialogue Between Vygotsky and Davydov. In: Højholt, C., Schraube, E. (eds) Subjectivity and Knowledge. Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29977-4_4
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