INTRODUCTION

In the previous chapter empirical knowledge and narrative knowledge were introduced, critiqued and contrasted to show how empirical knowledge and paradigmatic thinking in play may limit rather than expand learning opportunities for children. As was shown, empirical–rational thinking enables humans to group and classify things and phenomena within the world ‘by comparing and pointing out the interrelations of genus and kind’ (Davydov, 1999a: 131). Through this type of thinking, ‘it is possible to solve the tasks of relating things to a certain class (genus) or, vice versa, divide a class into certain subclasses or kinds’ (p. 131). However, Davydov (1999a) stated that humans have another kind of thought and knowledge – theoretical knowledge and theoretical thinking. Davydov (1999a) writes that people in society frequently meet demands that require a system analysis where it is necessary to understand the particular and the general simultaneously, a task that requires a different kind of logic.