Child's Conception of the World: Selected Works vol 1

by Piaget,Jean

• ISBN13: 9780415168878
• ISBN10: 0415168872
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-03-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Jean Piaget was one of the most salient and inspirational figures in psychological and educational research this century. He was prolific, authoring or editing over eighty books and numerous journal papers which have spawned a huge and fertile continuation of his research over the decades. A major component of any course on children's psychological development and a research tradition that is expanding, scholars need access to the original texts rather than relying on secondhand accounts. Jean Piaget: Selected Works is a chance to acquire key original texts, most of which have been previously unavailable for several years.

Table of Contents

Introduction.---Problems and Methods	1	(1)
Method of tests, pure observation and the clinical method	2	(8)
The five types of reaction revealed by clinical examination	10	(8)
Rules and criteria for the diagnosis of the preceding types of reaction	18	(5)
Rules for the interpretation of the results	23	(10)
PART I.---REALISM	33	(136)
The Notion of Thought	37	(24)
The first stage: thinking is with the mouth	39	(8)
Looking and seeing	47	(2)
The second and third stages: thinking is with the head	49	(6)
Words and things	55	(6)
Nominal Realism	61	(27)
The origin of names	63	(8)
The place of names	71	(9)
The intrinsic value of names	80	(5)
Conclusions	85	(3)
Dreams	88	(35)
The first stage: the dream comes from outside and remains external	91	(15)
The second stage: the dream arises in us ourselves, but is external to us	106	(11)
The third stage: the dream is internal and of internal origin	117	(2)
Conclusions	119	(4)
Realism and the Origin of the Idea of Participation	123	(46)
Realism and the consciousness of self	124	(7)
Participation and magical practices	131	(19)
The origins of participation and magic as mani-fested in the child	150	(12)
Corroborative proof: spontaneous magical ideas in the adult	162	(4)
Conclusion: logical ontological egocentricity	166	(3)
PART II.---ANIMISM	169	(84)
Consciousness Attributed to Things	171	(23)
The first stage: all things are conscious	174	(5)
The second stage: things that can move are conscious	179	(3)
The third stage: things that can move of their own accord are conscious	182	(3)
The fourth stage: consciousness is restricted to animals	185	(2)
Conclusions	187	(7)
The Concept of ``Life''	194	(13)
The first stage: life is assimilated to activity in general	196	(3)
The second stage: life is assimilated to movement	199	(2)
The third and fourth stages: life is assimilated to spontaneous movement, then later is restricted to animals and plants	201	(3)
Conclusion: the notion of ``life''	204	(3)
The Origins of Child Animism, Moral Necessity and Physical Determinism	207	(46)
The child's spontaneous animism	207	(6)
The sun and moon follow us	213	(9)
Physical determinism and moral necessity	222	(6)
Conclusions. The significance of the questions on child animism, and the nature of ``diffuse animism''	228	(6)
Conclusions (continued): the origins of child animism	234	(19)
PART III.---ARTIFICIALISM	253	(136)
The Origin of the Sun and Moon	256	(29)
A primitive example of the first stage	258	(5)
The first stage: the sun and moon are made artificially	263	(9)
The second and the third stages: the origin of the sun and moon is first partly, then completely, natural	272	(8)
The quarters of the moon	280	(5)
Meteorology and the Origin of Water	285	(48)
The sky	287	(4)
The cause and the nature of night	291	(7)
The origin of the clouds	298	(9)
Thunder and lightning	307	(4)
The formation of rain	311	(9)
The explanations of snow, ice and cold	320	(6)
Rivers, lakes and sea, the primitive origin of water	326	(7)
The Origin of Trees, Mountains and of the Earth	333	(17)
The origin of wood and of plants	334	(3)
The origin of iron, glass, cloth, and of paper	337	(2)
The origin of stones and of earth	339	(8)
Origin of the mountains	347	(3)
The Meaning and Origins of Child Artificalism	350	(39)
The meaning of child artificialism	350	(10)
The relations of artificialism with the problem of the birth of babies	360	(9)
The stages of spontaneous artificialism and their relation with the development of animism	369	(7)
The origins of artificialism	376	(8)
The origins of identification and the causes of the decline of artificialism and animism	384	(5)
Appendix.---Note on the Relations between belief in Efficacy and Magic, in connection with §§ 2 and 3 of Chapter IV	389	(6)
Index of Names	395	(1)
General Index	396