WHOSE MIND

This article is an essay on the mind of the epistemic psychologist. Th is mind is a constructivist creator of knowledge within a scientific f ramework. It is also a mind that is guided and formed by the social wo rld of scientific institutions. Sociogenesis and constructivism are no t opponents along the lines usually assumed with respect to relations between Piaget and Vygotsky. They shared a deep respect for complexity of phenomena. Both were consistently developmental in their theoretic al constructions. A reconsideration of their common heritage points to specific theoretical gaps in contemporary developmental psychology. T hese are gaps that can be filled. Piaget and Vygotsky have challenged the world view of developmental psychology in numerous ways. Both of t hem were interested outsiders to that discipline. Outsiders often have a better view of the inside. This can be said to be true of both Vygo tsky and Piaget in relation to the field of developmental psychology. Vygotsky was a literary scholar whose interest in development stemmed from the issue of aesthetic synthesis. Piaget was a systematizer of mo llusks who strove for harmony in the human world. Yet both saw the nee d to understand development in its systemic unfolding.