Vygotsky’s Meta-theory of Development: Formal Description

Vygotsky’s text “The Structure and Dynamics of Age” contains a description of his meta-theory of development. However, psychologists have not understood this text because of its traditional philosophical character. The author of the article proposes a constructive reading of Vygotsky’s original text supplemented by his own formal description. This perusal of Vygotsky is based on the formula \(S_{i + 1} = (S_i + I) * f_{i + 1}\), where \(i\) is the serial number of current age period, \(S_i\) is the structure of the \(i-th\) age period, \(S_{i + 1}\) is the structure of the \((i + 1)-th\) age period and \(f_{i + 1}\) is the social situation of development for the \((i + 1)-th\) age period.