The Difficult Problem of Consciousness in the Dimension of Cultural-Historical Psychology
IZVESTIYA VUZOV SEVERO-KAVKAZSKII REGION SOCIAL SCIENCE June 30, 2026 Alexander A. Gaidt
The contemporary philosophy of consciousness is in crisis because the 'hard problem' reduces consciousness to basic sensory qualia, ignoring complex mental processes not derivable from individual sensory experience or neurophysiology. This natural-scientific approach frames the mind-brain relationship as an absolute opposition between internal/external and mental/physical. An alternative cultural-historical approach, rooted in L.S. Vygotsky's theory of higher mental functions, reframes the psychophysical problem as the relationship between thought and speech rather than psyche and brain. This approach offers high heuristic potential and opens new perspectives for constructing a monistic theory of the human psyche.