Background
Rubinshtein, Sergei Leonidovich was born on June 6, 1889 in Odessa.
Marxist philosopher of psychologist
Rubinshtein, Sergei Leonidovich was born on June 6, 1889 in Odessa.
Marburg University.
Taught and held administrative positions at various academic institutions in Russia, including the Institute of Philosophy of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
On the basis of his analysis of the writings of Marx, Rubinshtein in his 1934 article enunciated the thesis of the unity of consciousness and activity, which became the leading theoretical principle of Soviet psychology during the 1940s. It formed the foundation of the system of psychology presented in his influential textbook Osnovy obshchei psikhologii (1940). Rubinshtein’s subsequent and similarly influential works were devoted largely to the attempt to integrate theoretically the reflex theory of Sechenov and Pavlov, Lenin’s epistemological theory of reflection, and the dialectical materialist ontology of Soviet Marxism. Rubinshtein found the key to the mutual adjustment of these positions in a dialectical materialist interpretation of the principle of determinism, whereby external causes operate by way of internal conditions. He argued that a proper understanding of determinism permits resolution of such problems as the place of psychic or ‘ideal’ phenomena in a material world, the nature of thinking and the nature of personality.