Introduction to symposium on Vygotsky and Spinoza

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The phrase Voluntas et intellectus unum et idem sunt (Will and understanding are one and the same) appears in The Ethics, and Vygotsky refers to it as early as his notes from 1928, when he was developing the ideas in his History of the Development of the Higher Psychological Functions (Zavershneva & van der Veer, 2018, p. 118).

2. It is appropriate to note that contemporary neuroscientists, too, have turned to Spinoza to inform their theories and empirical research on the emotions (Damasio, 2003).

3. A chronology of the writing of the different chapters in Thinking and Speech can be found in Yasnitsky and van der Veer (2016).

4. In concluding Thinking and Speech, Vygotsky (1987) acknowledges, “Our investigation has brought us to the threshold of a problem that is broader, more profound, and still more extraordinary than the problem of thinking. It has brought us to the threshold of the problem of consciousness” (p. 285).

5. A discussion on the origin and meaning of the concept “germ cell” in cultural-historical theory can be found in Blunden (2017) .

6. In fact, Surmava and Blunden’s (but not Toassa and de Oliveira’s) articles were both written after and partly as a response to Maidansky’s original article.