History of psychology as a science: the contribution of M.S. Rogovin

The article is devoted to a discussion of important methodological problems of the modern history of psychology. It is argued that the history of psychology in Russia was formed as a separate area of scientific and psychological knowledge, its methodological foundations were developed in research works of several generations of scientists. Despite the advances of the modern Russian history of psychology, there remain unresolved methodological problems, resulting in the lack of a full-fledged universal history of psychology that would satisfactorily explain the development of psychological science and characterize its prospects. The article discusses in detail the ideas on the development of the history of psychology proposed by Russian scientist M.S. Rogovin in the 1960s. The historical and psychological concept of M.S. Rogovin remains underestimated, and sometimes it is interpreted incorrectly. Historical and psychological knowledge is considered by M.S. Rogovin as a unity of subject and methodological knowledge, and psychology itself includes three different but interrelated contents: pre-scientific, philosophical, and scientific, which interact throughout the history of psychology. Rogovin distinguishes the external and internal history of psychology, considering it as the dynamics of psychological concepts and the conditions that guide it. Rogovin is the founder of conceptual analysis in the Russian history of psychology. The dynamics of concepts are considered at three levels (facts as indicators of the movement of psychological concepts; internal relationships between psychological concepts, their self-movement associated with the functioning of certain psychological mechanisms; dynamics of concepts within the theoretical systems of modern psychology). This article is the first to distinguish the stages in M.S. Rogovin's work. At the third stage (from the 1970s), the author develops a structural-level approach to the study of the psyche. The article analyzes some provisions of the theory of M.S. Rogovin that are important for the development of a non-linear (level) history of psychology. It is argued that the ideas expressed by the author are of heuristic importance for the development of the history of psychology in the future. Based on the ideas of M.S. Rogovin, it is possible to proceed to the development of the history of psychology based on the level interpretation of the subject of psychology, the prospects of this approach are assessed in the article.