Well-known Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky often showed his deep interest in Spinoza’s thought, whom he asked for a new, solid basis to build a physicalist, but non-reductionist psychology. In the last years of his short life, Vygotsky dwelled upon the crucial problem of the freedom of will, especially related with the question of choice, and the relationship between cognitive faculties and emotions within human mind. In both cases, during the ‘30s, when Spinoza’s fortune in Soviet thought came to an abrupt stop, Vygotsky saw Spinoza’s philosophy as a good exemple of overcoming Descartes’ dualism, and a theory of mind which dialectically accounts for natural and cultural evolution. The paper shows why Vygotsky considered Spinoza’s theory of passions as “the turning point of the whole history of psychology, and its further development”.
Emozioni e libertà: la teoria spinoziana delle passioni nella lettura di L.S. Vygotskij (1896-1934)
STEILA, Daniela
2006-01-01
Abstract
Well-known Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky often showed his deep interest in Spinoza’s thought, whom he asked for a new, solid basis to build a physicalist, but non-reductionist psychology. In the last years of his short life, Vygotsky dwelled upon the crucial problem of the freedom of will, especially related with the question of choice, and the relationship between cognitive faculties and emotions within human mind. In both cases, during the ‘30s, when Spinoza’s fortune in Soviet thought came to an abrupt stop, Vygotsky saw Spinoza’s philosophy as a good exemple of overcoming Descartes’ dualism, and a theory of mind which dialectically accounts for natural and cultural evolution. The paper shows why Vygotsky considered Spinoza’s theory of passions as “the turning point of the whole history of psychology, and its further development”.
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