Concept in Light of Development and Ontogeny of Speech

Abstract

The study contains analysis of the notion “concept” in the context of L.S.Vygotsky’s theory on interrelated development of thinking and speech, as well as the identified prospects of studying the types and kinds of concepts regarding their relation to the development level of the speech and thinking mechanism. The inadvisability to abandon the conceptual approach to concept studies is justified, as this approach ensures identifying the main ways and conditions to develop the higher, theoretical type of thinking and the content-related generalization of the accumulated experience related to it that is expressed in the language. The concept as presented herein is a cognitive instrument, a means to form a cognitive worldview in general and a sphere of concepts in particular. As mental images and projections ascend to notions, the affective part of the cognitive process is not lost but is “hidden” in the means of constructing notions that is revealed within the cognitive process. Concepts can be studied along from concepts-images to notions and from notions (including scientific categories) to mental images and projections. In our opinion, particular value here belongs to insights that uncover the specific nature of formation and development of the cognitive worldview.