Entre a "democracia da literatura" e a paixão pela compreensão: entendendo a dinâmica do desenvolvimento

The First Six Years: Culture’s Adventures in Psychology

“…The anonymous 'democracy of the literature' (Valsiner, 2000b) limits the ways of thinking among researchers to concrete methods-related argumentation-and 'politically correct' decisions-rather than letting it move towards generalization of knowledge. The 'application of the "right" methods (in "right" ways)' becomes privileged-in contrast to the intricacy of theoretical ideas (or precise phenomenological depictions).…”

“…1 It has become acceptable as a category label for the contemporary fragmented field of psychology, in various versions. Thus, the labels 'cultural psychology' and 'cross-cultural psychology' are usually interpreted as labels for two (somewhat unclearly separated) 'literatures' consisting of empirical reports that use the label 'culture' in some way (Valsiner, 2000b). This problem-of dominance of labels over elaborate thought patterns-is not only specific to the culture-linked parts of psychology.…”

Editorial Introduction: Beyond Intersubjectivity

“…This creates a new phenomenon in the social organization of the sciences-instead of crucial, key empirical evidence (experimentum crucis), which has been an ideal for the role of empirical validation of researchers' ideas for a long time, we are faced with a new form of decision making about scientific knowledge. That new form can be called 'democracy of the literature' (Valsiner, 2000).Without doubt we prefer to live under democratic rule in our social lives-at least as long as we do not experience the repressive function of the Tocquevillian take on 'democracy' being the 'tyranny of the majority over the minority'. Yet when it comes to deciding about matters of science, 'democracy of the literature' may eliminate the very essence of science-that of making new knowledge about our objects of investigation, rather than taking other positions vis-à-vis these phenomena.…”

“…This creates a new phenomenon in the social organization of the sciences-instead of crucial, key empirical evidence (experimentum crucis), which has been an ideal for the role of empirical validation of researchers' ideas for a long time, we are faced with a new form of decision making about scientific knowledge. That new form can be called 'democracy of the literature' (Valsiner, 2000).…”