Chapter 8: Valsiner’s Horizons Toward Bohr’s Tradition

Valsiner’s dialogue with tradition—as it is understood in philosophical hermeneutics—has caught my attention for years. At the opportunity of writing this chapter, I sought to approach his Inaugural Lecture of the Niels Bohr Professorship accordingly.

With this aim, I will first highlight some dimensions of the related notions of tradition and horizons in Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Next, I will take some selected passages of Valsiner’s Lecture, seeking to illustrate how this kind of dialogue plays an important role in strengthening his proposal for a “Psychology in the new key of Cultural Psychology”.

“Tradition encompasses institutions and life-forms as well as texts” (Gadamer, 1977, p. 96).