A.N.Leontiev’s concept оf the origin of the psyche at the present stage of science development

Abstract

The classical theory of the origin of the psyche proposed by A.N.Leontiev is compared with modern biological data on the features of vital activity of living organisms not belonging to the animal kingdom. On the basis of this comparison we conclude that the criterion of sensitivity, as it is traditionally understood, is insufficient for precise separation of living systems possessing the psych from those ones that don’t possess it. Using modern psychological and biological theories we concretize and clarify the specific characters of vital activity process for regulation of which sensitivity develops. The specificity of psychic reflection is defined as the orientation of the subject’s behavior in the environment that consists of heterogeneous objects in contrast to the orientation and regulation of the subject’s vital activity process within his/her own organism performed on physiological level.