Hi everyone. I have found a passage in Marxism and Philosophy of Language by Voloshinov whose meaning does not seem to have been analyzed in specialized literature. Specifically, he writes that "Introspection is a kind of understanding and, therefore, inevitably proceeds in some specific ideological direction. Thus it can be carried out in the interests of psychology, and, in that case, it becomes understanding of a particular experience within the context of other inner signs, with focus on the unity of psychic life". Some lines below, he adds: "introspection can proceed in a different direction, gravitating toward ethical or moral self-objectification. Here the inner sign is drawn into a system of ethical values and norms". These sentences seem to suggest that, for Voloshinov, understanding (1) involves some kind of operation of showing how some sign fits into a more general "system" or "context", of relating it, as a part, to a specific whole - and that, as a consequence (2), understanding is somehow "relative", in the sense that "situating" a sign in different "contexts" will amount to understanding it differently each time. However, the book does not seem to provide an explicit definition of "understanding" along these lines. Can anyone suggest a possible answer to this question, or bibliographical recommendations about Voloshinov's notion of "understanding"?

Thanks in advance

Claudio