Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
360949 | The Journal of Mathematical Behavior | 2006 | 11 Pages |
The notions of abstract and concrete are central to the conceptualization of mathematical knowing and learning. It is generally accepted that development goes from concrete toward the abstract; but dialectical theorists maintain just the opposite: development consists of an ascension from the abstract to the concrete. In this article, we reformulate the relationship of abstract and concrete consistent with a dialectical materialist approach to conscious human activity, as it was developed in the line of cultural-historical psychology. Our reformulation of development in and through interpretation shows that rather than being a movement from concrete to abstract or from abstract to concrete, development occurs in a double ascension that simultaneously moves in both direction: it is a passage of one in the other. In the proposed approach, the theoretical contradictions of earlier approaches to the issue of abstract have been eliminated.