The concept of consciousness in the Vygotski´s theory

Abstract

This article investigates the concept of consciousness in the work of Lev Vygotsky, which is the main problem of his psychology. It summarizes the importance of the political and social context of the Soviet Union for the development of his theory, which has begun with influences from the reflexology and pavlovism. However his conception was constructed with a progressive integration of his wide range of knowledge, embracing arts, marxist, classical philosophy, neuropsychology and experimental psychology. Through readings of vygotskyan´s works produced from 1924 up to 1934, this article revises the semantics occurrences of the word “consciousness”, identifying its monist and materialist dialectic fundaments, extracting its main senses and including it in historical-cultural perspective. The concept is divided in three fundamental senses (process of becoming aware of the internal and external reality; attribute of psychological contents and processes; psychological system) which link it selves, laying the foundations of the general psychology of Vygotsky and relating neuropsychology, ethics and ontology.