The Practical Essence of Man
The 'Activity Approach' in Late Soviet Philosophy
Description
This book presents to Western readers, for the first time, a current in late Soviet philosophy known as the activity approach’. Though lesser known than its counterpart in cultural-historical psychology (the thinking of Vygotsky and Leontyev), the activity approach became an intellectual mode, leading to several different interpretations of human activity and challenging Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.
Author Bios
Andrey Maidansky, Ph.D. (1993), is a Professor of Philosophy at Belgorod State University, Russia, has published monographs and articles on Spinoza, Marx, and Soviet philosophy, and the anthology Spinoza: Pro et contra (St Petersburg: RHGA, 2012).
Vesa Oittinen is Professor at the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki. His research focuses on the history of modern philosophy, especially German, Scandinavian, and Russian philosophy.
More Info
Publication date: October 10, 2017
Table of Contents
Introduction
Andrey Maidansky and Vesa Oittinen
1. Activity and the Search for True Materialism
David Bakhurst
2. ‘Praxis’ as the Criterion of Truth? The Aporias of Soviet Marxism and the Activity-Approach
Vesa Oittinen
3. Reality as Activity: The Concept of Praxis in Soviet Philosophy
Andrey Maidansky
4. The Category of Activity in Soviet Philosophy
Inna Titarenko
5. The Activity-Approach and Metaphysics
Edward M. Swiderski
6. Abstract and Concrete Understanding of Activity: ‘Activity’ and ‘Labour’ in Soviet Philosophy
Sergey Mareyev
7. The Kiev Philosophical School in the Light of the Marxist Theory of Activity
Elena Mareyeva
8. The Evolution of Batishchev’s Views on the Nature of Objective Activity, and the Limits of the Activity-Approach
Alexander Khamidov
9. The Activity-Approach in Soviet Philosophy and Contemporary Cognitive Studies
Vladislav Lektorsky
10. The Concept of the Scheme in the Activity-Theories of Ilyenkov and Piaget
Pentti Määttänen
11. The Ideal and the Dream-World: Evald Ilyenkov and Walter Benjamin on the Significance of Material Objects
Alex Levant
Bibliography
Index
