Vygotsky envisioned the success of psychology as science only if it sustained its holistic and interdisciplinary nature:

Such a system [of an interdisciplinary holistic psychology] has not yet been created. We can say with confidence that it will not arise out of the ruins of empirical psychology or in the laboratories of reflexologists. It will come as a broad biosocial synthesis of the theory of animal behavior and societal man. This new psychology will be a branch of general biology and at the same time the basis of all sociological sciences. It will be the knot that ties the science of nature and the science of man together. It will, therefore, indeed, be most intimately connected with philosophy, but with a strictly scientific philosophy that represents the combined theory of scientific knowledge and not with the speculative philosophy that preceded scientific generalizations (Vygotsky, 1925/1997, p. 61; c.f.Yasnitsky, 2011b).

Demonstrate your competence:Consider your thoughts on psychology and phenomenology

• How does Piekkola suggest this issue be resolved?
• What intrigued you most about Vygotsky and his ideas?
• What difference might his approach make to your life and practice?