Vygotsky on cultural-historical development: from the primitive to the superhuman ( Vygotski y el desarrollo histórico-cultural: del hombre primitivo al superhombre )

Abstract

In recent years, Vygotsky’s theory of the historical development from the ‘primitive’ through the ‘cultural man’ and on to the ‘superhuman’ has been subjected to keen criticism. In the concept of the primitive, colonialistic arrogance and even racism are discovered, and the concept of the superhuman is attributed to the influence of Nietzsche and Marxist revolutionary utopias. Vygotsky’s criticism of the modern ‘cultural man’ is virtually ignored. This article reveals the actual content of these concepts in the theory of Vygotsky and clears them of the latest ideological connotations. The historical framework for the existence of the primitive man is defined as the following: from the start of labouring life to the invention of ‘signification’. The era of the superhuman will come as a result of the ‘polytechnization of labor’, i.e., the transformation of labour into an applied science. The psychology of the future will become the ‘theory and practice of the superhuman’. It aims to form a free, universally developed personality that creates the conditions of its own life and regulates its psychological functions.