ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the problem of representation by discussing in detail the representational form, its mode of constitution and its relation to the symbolic function and the production of knowledge. It shows precisely that once we take the ‘between’ seriously mentalist ideas about representation collapse and representation becomes something other than the isolated intrapsychic process found in mainstream forms of cognitivism. The chapter discusses the making of representation in Cartesian philosophy showing how it has dominated current conceptions of representation and go on to discuss the dialogical approach to the study of representation emphasising the symbolic and genetic processes involved in the development of representation. It describes as the ‘psychology of the pure subject’ and the ‘psychology of the pure object’. The chapter shows that representational processes cannot be understood outside the psychosocial and historical circumstances that make them possible in the first place.
