Vygotsky's psychology-philosophy

a metaphor for language theory and learning

Dorothy Robbins

You hold in your hands a new book. Professor Dorothy Robbins dedicated it to one of the aspects of the cultural heritage of the famous psychologist L. S. Vygot­ sky. His activity (deyatelnost) was multifaceted. He had input into different fields of psychology: its methodology, psychology of art, pathopsychology, the psy­ chology of child and adolescent development, pedagogical psychology, general psychology, speech psychology, and other fields. Within his various activities he enriched not only psychology, but a variety of different sciences/academics­ pedagogics, defectology, psychiatry, literary critical theory, and linguistics. Some famous scientists feel that he left his mark in fields of various scientific areas that did not exist during his lifetime-such as psycho linguistics, semiotics, and cybernetics. Many psychologists and linguists conduct research in the spirit of his ideas that are contained within his approach of cultural-historical theory of human psy­ chological development, all created by Vygotsky as early as the 1920s and 1930s; these ideas have become popular among scientists in different countries in the last decades. The use of Vygotsky's theories, even beyond the frame of psychol­ ogy, turns out to be fruitful. I hope that this new book by Dorothy Robbins will help readers understand the deeper meaning of the scientific/academic research undertaken by my father and the scientific results that were obtained by him.