Towards an Epistemology of social and human Sciences. Remarks on the Vygotsky’s methodological Thought


Abstract:

In the few years of his scientific work, Vygotskij outlined a theoretical synthesis capable of framing and linking the results of his contribution to the solution of the educational problems of the Soviet Union of those years. Within this extraordinary practical and scientific engagement, he developed some original methodological and epistemological ideas, which are still of great interest: the idea of stimulus-mean, the double stimulation experiment, meaning as object and analysis unity of scientific investigation in psychology – and in the social and human sciences. Here we try to illustrate the form and sources of these ideas and reflect on their relevance, in an epistemological and methodological debate that cannot escape the Aristotelian paradigm of practical science or the detailed consideration of heuristic techniques.