Synopses & Reviews
Andy Blunden presents an interdisciplinary review of theories of concepts of interest to cognitive psychology, analytic philosophy, linguistics, and the history of science. Problems within these disciplines establishing reductive theories of the conceptual have led some to abandon concepts altogether in favor of interactionist or narrowly pragmatic approaches.
Blunden responds with an account of the development of the theory of concepts from Descartes through Hegelwith special focus on the latters critical appropriation by early critical social scienceculminating in the cultural psychology of Lev Vygotsky. He then proposes an approach to concepts which draws on activity theory, according to which concepts are equally subjective and objective: both units of consciousness and of the cultural formation of which ones consciousness is part. This continues the authors earlier work in An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity (Haymarket, 2011).
Synopsis
Drawing on the work of renowned psychological theorist Lev Vygotsky, Blunden extends his work begun with Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity
Synopsis
Andy Blunden presents a critical review of theories of Concepts in cognitive psychology, analytical philosophy, linguistics, conceptual change theory and other disciplines. Blunden responds to these criticisms with an historical review focussing on the idealist philosophy of Hegel, its reception and transformation in the development of positive science and finally the cultural psychology of Lev Vygotsky.
About the Author
Andy Blunden is an independent scholar in Melbourne, Australia. Andy works with the Independent Social Research Network and the Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy and has run a Hegel Summer School since 1998. Andy retired from Melbourne University in 2002.