ON SOME HISTORICAL ROOTS AND PRESENT-DAY DOUBTS - A REPLY TO NICOLOPOULOU AND WEINTRAUB (1996)

Nicolopoulou and Weintraub (1996) raised doubts about the extent of th e relevance of the Humboldtian tradition for Vygotsky's concept of cul ture, and his semiotic approach in general. However, these doubts are unfounded-Vygotsky was in direct contact with the 19th-century German traditions of philosophical analyses of language, as well as with thei r Russian elaborations. Furthermore, Vygotsky borrowed theoretical not ions from two distinct traditions of thought-often contrasted (by Sovi et sources) as 'idealist' and 'materialist.' Defying the demand to mak e such contrasts mutually exclusive, Vygotsky tried to blend productiv e moments from each of them into his approach. He was not a 'cultural relativist' in the sense of present-day North American social discours e. It is suggested that the concepts of development and relativism are in need of further elaboration, in ways that allow recognition of loc al progress while avoiding global claims where the bases of comparison are not made explicit.