• College Home
• About Metro State
• Academics
• Admissions
• Campus Life
• Technology
• Athletics
• Library

Physical Tools Extend our Physical Abilities

Vygotsky was in agreement with the view popular among his contemporaries that the difference between humans and lower animals is that humans use tools, make new tools, and teach others how to use them. These tools extend human abilities by enabling people to do things that they could not do without them. For example, although you can break smaller twigs and branches using your bare hands, you can cut larger pieces of wood only using an ax or a saw. In a sense, these physical tools act as an extension of human bodies; instead of having stronger hands you now have a “hand-ax” or a “hand-saw,” making up for the fact that as a species we do not have bodies as strong as other animals’.