Reading Vygotsky’s “Thinking and speech”
Materials for Taiwan
Introductory words from the teacher and questions for the audience:
“Thinking and Speech” is probably the most known and less understood book written by Vygotsky. There are some deep reasons which make it difficult to understand even now when we have much more knowledge on this topic. The book contains a great number of ideas which are still very promising, fresh and inspiring. The aim of my lecture is to prepare you for the reading of “Thinking and speech” from this persprctive. In other words, I would like to help you to read this book having in mind some theoretical and methodological frames which might help you to find clear orientation into this “terra incognita”. I would like to help you to escape the superficial reading which very often brings knowledge but does not bring understanding. So, I will give you the theoretical and methodological concexts and you will find the content.
Questions on Preface and Chapter 1 of “Thinking and speech”
My first question is:
1.What is/are the main topic/s discussed in Preface and Chapter 1 of the book? Could you formulate at least three keywords expressing these topics and subject-matter?
Please, express your opinions in brief form.
As for me I can put it in this way:
Psychological system (unity of thinking and speech)
Development
Methods of analysis of the developing unities (systems).
Let us specify these items.
Psychological system (unity of thinking and speech).
“This book deals with one of the most complex and difficult problems of experimental psychology, the problem of thinking and speech”. (From Preface, page 39)
Development
“First, we must analyze the empirical data which have been accumulated and attempt to assess their more general implications. Through an analysis of available information on phylogenesis and ontogenesis, we must attempt to identify the most useful point of departure for the resolution of the problem” (ibid)
Methods of analysis of the developing unities (systems).
“To our knowledge, there has as yet been no systematic attempt to address this problem experimentally”.
Please, try to find the other places in Preface where Vygotsky discusses this issue.
My second question is:
2. What do you think whether the cultural-historical theory was already created before Vygotsky undertook this study on thinking and speech? If so in what degree the book reflects the main tenets of the cultural-historical theory?
Please, express your opinions.
From my point of view, this book reflects the cultural-historical theory, which was created at late 1920s.
From this it comes that in order to understand Vygotsky’s approach to the problem of thinking and speech and their development we have to have some basic knowledge of Vygotsky’s theoretical approach. If not coming to this book with this basic knowledge, the understanding of the content of this book will be very limited or even wrong. This is exactly right in many respects. This is right because the cultural-historical theory was (and still is) very different from the theories dominated (and dominating) in world psychology.
This is quite hard task – not to understand theory from the book, but to understand book from the theory. Yet, the task is even more difficult.
By this I mean one circumstance which should be taken into account when you begin to read this book of Vygotsky. I mean the time and evolution. Let me explain: the mystic of Vygotsky is that he was working in the field of academic psychology during very short time – actually around 10-11 years (from 1924 to 1934). If we compare him with his famous peer (whom do you think I mean? – J. Piaget, who was born the same year, 1896), we will see that it was really very short time. But the mystic is that Vygotsky left an enormous amount of texts, papers, articles, unpublished manuscripts, diaries and notes, most of them remain unpublished even now. Even more, during those 10 years he made significant evolution in his theoretical views (from pure reflexology to the cultural-historical approach). This means that different texts of Vygotsky written in different times were very different from the theoretical point of view. Not all Vygotsky’s writings belong to cultural-historical theory. They reflect different periods and different theoretical positions and therefore they might look controversial. But they are not controversial if we understand this evolution.
If we look on “Thinking and speech” we will see that the situation is even much more difficult. And the difficulty is that he started to write this book having one theoretical position and finished this book having different theoretical approach. The book is somehow in the middle of the transition from one approach to another.
Question to the audience: Please find in the Preface the place which proves this position of mine.
This book is the product of nearly ten years work. Many of the questions that emerged in the investigation were not apparent to us when we began. We were frequently forced to reconsider our positions during the investigation. Consequently, the results of a great deal of hard work had to be discarded. Much of the remainder had to be redone, restructured, redefined, or rewritten (preface, page 41).
What is this “reconsidering of the positions”? In brief, during the study Vygotsky and his research group made a transition from the position of distinction of higher mental functions from the lower ones (presented in cultural-historical theory) to the position of the relations of lower and higher functions as psychological systems (systemic and sense-based construction of human consciousness). In this book we can see clearly this evolution. On the other hand, this makes this book difficult to understand. The only way is to have clear picture of these two theoretical positions before reading the “Thinking and speech”. To create this clear picture is the aim of my lectures. They cannot replace the reading of the book, but they will help you to find a sort of orientation in this book.
The structure of the lecture:
First, we will discuss the item of what is higher mental function and its development (which is the subject-matter of the cultural-historical theory). Then we will see how his approach to higher mental functions has been changed and transformed into the idea of psychological system.
After that we will discuss the question of the unit of analysis which is the main theoretical discussed in Chapter 1 of “Thinking and speech” and which underlies the whole book.
Therefore the list of questions could look like this:
