Thought and Language

Since it was introduced to the English-speaking world in 1962, Lev Vygotsky's highlyoriginal exploration of human mental development has become recognized as a classic foundationalwork of cognitive science. Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness,arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it becomeinternalized verbal thought.Now Alex Kozulin has created a new edition of the original MIT Presstranslation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar that restores the work's complete text and addsmaterials that will help readers better understand Vygotsky's meaning and intentions. Kozulin hasalso contributed an introductory essay that offers new insight into the author's life, intellectualmilieu, and research methods.Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934) studied at Moscow University and acquiredin his brief lifespan a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the social sciences, psychology,philosophy, linguistics, literature, and the arts. He began his systematic work in psychology at theage of 28, and within a few years formulated his theory of the development of specifically humanhigher mental functions. He died of tuberculosis ten years later, and Thought and Language waspublished posthumously in 1934.Alex Kozulin studied at the Moscow Institute of Medicine and theMoscow Institute of Psychology, where he began his investigation of Vygotsky and the history ofSoviet psychology. He emigrated in 1979 and is now Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) atBoston University. He is the author of Psychology in Utopia: Toward a Social History of SovietPsychology (MIT Press 1984).