Jerome Bruner: Language, Culture and Self

About the Book

Jerome Bruner is one of the grand figures of psychology. From his role as a founder of the cognitive revolution in the 1950s to his recent advocacy of cultural psychology, Bruner's influence has been dramatic and far-reaching. Such is the breadth of his vision that Bruner's work has inspired thinkers in many of the major areas of psychology and has had a powerful impact on adjacent disciplines. His writings on language acquisition, culture and education are of profound and enduring importance. Focusing on the dominant themes of language, culture and self, this volume provides a comprehensive exploration of Bruner's fertile ideas and a considered appraisal of his legacy.



With a distinguished list of contributors including Jerome Bruner himself, the result is an outstanding volume of interest to students and scholars in psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, anthropology, linguistics, and education.







Among the contributors are Judy Dunn, Howard Gardner, Clifford Geertz, Rom Harre, David Olson, Edward Reed, Talbot Taylor, Michael Tomasello, and John Shotter. The volume is framed by an editorial introduction that considers the distinctively philosophical dimensions of Bruner's thought, and a final chapter by Bruner himself in which he re-examines prominent themes in his work in light of issues raised by the contributors.





The volume will be invaluable to students and researchers in the fields of psychology, cognitive science, education, and the philosophy of mind.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - David Bakhurst and Stuart G Shanker Bruner′s Way Imbalancing Act - Clifford Geertz Jerome Bruner′s Cultural Psychology Bruner on Language Acquisition - Michael Tomasello The House that Bruner Built - Stuart G Shanker and Talbot J Taylor Bruner and Condillac on Learning How to Talk - Talbot J Taylor Emotion, Pragmatics, and Social Understanding in the Preschool Years - Judy Dunn and Jane R Brown Education - David R Olson the Bridge from Culture to Mind Towards a Cultural Ecology of Instruction - Edward S Reed Commentaries - Howard Gardner Jerome Bruner as Educator: Personal Reflections Reed on Bruner on Education - David Bakhurst Infancy and the Birth of Competence - Duane Rumbaugh, Michael Bera and Christopher Elder Bruner and Comparative-Developmental Research Norms in Life - Rom Harré Problems in the Representation of Rules Towards a Third Revolution in Psychology - John Shotter From Inner Mental Representations to Dialogically Structured Social Practices Memory, Identity, and the Future of Cultural Psychology - David Bakhurst In Response - Jerome Bruner

About the Author :
David Bakhurst works primarily in three areas: Russian Philosophy, philosophicalpsychology, and moral philosophy. In 1991, he published a study of the philosophical culture of the USSR, Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), focused on the life and work of Evald Ilyenkov (1924-79). Ilyenkov, like the renowned psychologist Lev Vygotsky, maintains that each individual mind is formed through initiation into culture. Bakhurst explores this idea in many recent publications and examines parallel views in the thought of such thinkers as Wittgenstein and Jerome Bruner. His ethical writings include several papers on moral realism and ethical particularism. Educated at Keele, Moscow, and Oxford, Bakhurst studied with Jonathan Dancy, Felix Mikhailov, and John McDowell. He has twice held visiting fellowships in Oxford, most recently at All Souls College (2001-02). In 2003, he was appointed to an honorary chair in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK.