Chris Drain

|Lecturer
Academic Appointments

Lecturer

I was trained in both analytic and continental philosophy, though I came to specialize in 20th century Soviet philosophical psychology. I generally work on the relevance of psychologist L.S. Vygotsky for contemporary accounts of "distributed cognition," and what that might mean for questions concerning human cognitive origins. My research lately deals with the work of comparative psychologist Michael Tomasello and his "Vygotskian Intelligence Hypothesis." I'm also interested in the philosophy of technology, especially as it intersects with certain transhumanist programs. 

Personal Website

Contact

Christopher.P.Drain@dartmouth.edu
37 Dewey Fld Rd, Room 232
HB 6250

Department(s)

Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, Institute for Writing and Rhetoric

Education

  • B.A. University of California, Berkeley
  • M.A. Boston College
  • M.A. Villanova University
  • Ph.D. Villanova University

Selected Publications

  • Technics and signs: Anthropogenesis in Vygotsky, Leroi-Gourhan, and Stiegler. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 44(3): 53. (2022).

  • Review of the book Proto-phenomenology, language acquisition, orality, and literacy: Dwelling in speech II, by L.J. Hatab. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 21:469–476. (2022).

  • Tomasello, Vygotsky, and the phylogenesis of mind: A reply to Kyrill Potapov's "Objectification and the labour of the negative in the origin of human thinking." Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 10(6): 26-35. (2021).

  • Cognition, activity, and content: A.N. Leontiev and the enactive origin of ideal reflective content. (2018). Epistemology & Philosophy of Science, 55(2): 106-121. (2018)

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Works In Progress

Vygotskian transhumanism: Marxian anthropology and the ideal of moral perfection