The Communication Debate: Polemics between A.A. Leontiev and B.F. Lomov in Scientific Publications of the 1970s

Abstract

The article is focused on the discussion between A.A. Leontiev and B.F. Lomov on the problem of the psychological theory of communication in the second half of the 1970s. The discussion is considered from the standpoint of intellectual history, which implies the positioning of scientific statements as social acts. The discussion unfolded in three stages each relating to particular publications. The first of these stages includes articles authored by the discussants in the col­lection “Methodological Problems of Social Psychology” (1975), in which A.A. Le­ontiev and B.F. Lomov state their main provisions without opposing them. The second stage is represented by B.F. Lomov’s section in the book “Psycho­logical Problems of Social Regulation of Behavior” (1976), in which he high­lights the main contradiction between the two positions. The third stage consists of articles by A.A. Leontiev and B.F. Lomov, published in 1979 in the journal “Voprosy Filosofii”, and related archival materials. These articles put forward ar­guments for and against the use of the category “activity” in the consideration of communication. This argumentation is analyzed in the context of historical circumstances, including the publication by B.F. Lomov of the main theses of the “systems approach”, successful defense of a doctoral dissertation in psy­chology by A.A. Leontiev (1976), change of leadership at the Faculty of Psy­chology of Moscow State University, changes in the editorial policy of “Voprosy Filosofii”. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the acute phase of the discus­sion was largely a reflection of the clash between Marxist monism, which ex­cludes the plurality of perspectives in science, and pluralism, which is more in line with a wide range of schools and branches of psychological science in the 1970s.