ABSTRACT
A number of themes emerge from the reading of the chapters written about the issue of (in)determinism in developmental processes by: Oliveira and Valsiner; Pedrosa, Carvalho, and Império-Hamburger; and Smolka, de Góes, and Pino. All three chapters place the major burden of indeterminism on the shoulders of semiosis, and the inherent flexibility of the symbol. They all place the semiotic process in the context of an individual-social relationship, stressing both the unity and the distinction between these spheres. They recognize a certain relationship between the past, present, and future, which is marked by historicity, a forward lunging motivational impetus, and constrained, yet flexible, potential. Finally, they all talk about ways in which psycho-social reality is structured and processes through which it is restructured, stressing the reversible figure-ground nature of the relationship between order and hierarchy, on one side, and chaos, on the other.
