WHY IS THE CULTURAL-HISTORICAL THEORY BY LEV VYGOTSKY IMPORTANT TODAY?
The article views the cultural-social concept developed by L. Vygotsky and its relevance for the study of socio-philosophical issues in education. Sociocultural changes in the information society have a profound effect on human life. In the sphere of education, for instance, there emerge such new technologies as e-learning and electronic means of information spreading are becoming more and more popular. Today's information age is recognized by scholars as a new type of culture and communication; thus, a relevant methodology to study the means of information spreading and emergence of knowledge is needed. Such issues as the nature of knowledge in the modern world, its validity criteria and relation to reality refer scholars to the constructivist component in cognition. Constructivism, which is considered to be a very productive research methodology nowadays, seems to be able to find answers to a number of questions. However, as many researchers admit, epistemological constructivism cannot explain the dynamics of knowledge development. To understand how knowledge is formed nowadays, the author suggests turning to the legacy of the past. This seems all the more important as Vygotsky's works have seen a rising tide of interest among today's Western philosophers. The latter find in his theory a variety of details that acquire new meaning for the development of philosophical methodology in the context of post-industrial society. The paper proves that L. Vygotsky's theory of mind development can be efficiently used to study the modern sociocultural context, namely learning and education.