The Dialogical concept of consciousness in L.S. Vygotsky and G.H. Mead and its relevance for contemporary discussions on consciousness

• Authors: Leszek Koczanowicz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In my paper I show the relevance of cultural-activity theory for solving the puzzles of the concept of consciousness which encounter contemporary philosophy. I reconstruct the main categories of cultural-activity theory as developed by M.M. Bakhtin, L.S. Vygotsky, G.H. Mead, and J. Dewey. For the concept of consciousness the most important thing is that the phenomenon of human consciousness is consider to be an effect of intersection of language, social relations, and activity. Therefore consciousness cannot be reduced to merely sensual experience but it has to be treated as a complex process in which experience is converted into language expressions which in turn are used for establishing interpersonal relationships. Consciousness thus can be accounted for by its reference to objectivity of social relationships rather than to the world of physical or biological phenomena.

Keywords

EN

consciousness; dialogue; activity theory; cultural concept of consciousness; mind-body problem

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 65-70

Contributors

author

Leszek Koczanowicz

• Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw Faculty, ul. Ostrowskiego 30, 53-238 Wrocław

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10059-011-0010-1