A Critique of Vygotsky's Misapprehension of Marx's "Phenomenal Forms"

A concept originally formulated in the context of Karl Marx's sociological investigations the Erscheinungsformen, or phenomenal forms plays a key role in relation to a number of educational inquiries, and has important heuristic value for them. Lev Vygotsky saw the concept of phenomenal forms as central to the original Marxian paradigm, and he deployed it as he developed his account of cognitive development in humans. Full development of the concept, however, shows that its integration into cognitive psychology by Vygotsky was incomplete in crucial respects, and pedagogical flaws were the result. The phenomenal forms may prove useful in explaining the transition between Vygotsky's socio-constructivism and the subsequent developments led by Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy.