The developmental psychologies of Dewey and Vygotsky are often brought together, or even assimilated, by contemporary constructivist and social constructivist theories, including sociocultural approaches. These theories broadly subscribe to the naturalistic philosophical paradigm dominating educational research. Nevertheless, they are incompatible, as expressed from the outset in their antagonistic conceptions of the relationship between human development and biological evolution. This article proposes a comparative analysis of the meaning of key concepts such as sign, meaning, mind, consciousness, will, personality or freedom in Dewey's and Vygotsky's texts, and contrasts their respective interpretations of human choice and the mind-body problem. On this basis, the fundamental issue of mental causation appears at the core of the divergences between Dewey and Vygotsky's theories of human thought.

杜威和维果茨基的发展心理学经常被当代建构主义和社会建构主义理论（包括社会文化方法）结合在一起，甚至被吸收。这些理论广泛认同主导教育研究的自然主义哲学范式。然而，正如他们从一开始就对人类发展与生物进化之间关系的敌对概念所表达的那样，它们是不相容的。本文对杜威和维果茨基的文本中符号、意义、心智、意识、意志、人格或自由等关键概念的含义进行了比较分析，并对比了他们各自对人类选择和身心问题的解释。以这个为基础，