Conversations libres avec Jean Piaget

by Jean Piaget

"Pienso que todas las estructuras se construyen y que el hecho fundamental es ese desarrollo de la construcción, que nada está dado al comienzo, salvo algunos puntos limitados sobre los que se apoya el resto. Las estructuras no están dadas por adelantado ni en el espíritu humano ni en el mundo exterior tal como lo percibimos o lo organizamos. Se construyen por interacción entre las actividades del sujeto y las reacciones del objeto.” (Piaget, cap. 5, p. 75.). "Piaget llegó a esta conclusión no como físico ni como psicólogo, sino como biólogo. De la teoría de la evolución introdujo el concepto de adaptación en el estudio de la cognición. [...] Aunque se guió por una manera de pensar puramente biológica, esta le condujo a una teoría del conocimiento perfectamente compatible con la de los físicos modernos. Ambas teorías reconocen que las estructuras conceptuales que consideramos como “conocimiento” son los productos de las actividades cognoscitivas que moldean el pensamiento para que concuerde con las limitaciones que experimenta.” (Ernst von Glasersfeld, Homenaje a Jean Piaget.). Psicólogo, biólogo, filósofo y epistemólogo, Jean Piaget fue celebrado como inspirador del estructuralismo en la década de 1960 y como precursor del constructivismo de la década de 1980. Pero las grandes intuiciones de Piaget aún se adelantan al paso de los descubrimientos científicos del nuevo milenio. Si la genética es el signo de nuestro tiempo, hay que reconocer que este tercer gran paradigma científico de la época contemporánea también puede reivindicarlo como uno de sus precursores más distinguidos.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Education

Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) was a Swiss philosopher, natural scientist and developmental theorist, well known for his work studying children, his theory of cognitive development, and his epistemological view called "genetic epistemology." In 1955, he created the International Centre for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva and directed it until his death in 1980. According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget was "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing."

Reviews

[Lars Guthrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piagetian ideas have had such an impact on education and child psychology that as with all schools of thought that become popularized, those ideas have been vilified or bowdlerized to fit preconceptions. There are Piagetians and anti-Piagetians who have never read Piaget.

There is a good reason. At the risk of overgeneralizing, it seems to me that genius is rarely warm and fuzzy. Piaget can be prickly, and his writing, rooted in rigorous scientific research and expressed in the language of the academy, is always dense and often inaccessible, at least to a reader like me.

That made this slender volume especially helpful. In the process of talking to Piaget and some of his colleagues in 1969 and 1975, Jean-Claude Bringuier skillfully teases out complex ideas in palatable form.

He also gives us a picture of a real person in a real (and messy) study who likes to make fondue and go on bike rides, listens to Bach and Wagner while he works, and wears his Legion of Honor pin because it helps with French customs officials and restaurant reservations.

For anyone wanting a basic understanding of Piaget, you could do worse than to read 'Conversations' and another short book written by Piaget himself with his collaborator Bärbel Inhelder, 'The Psychology of the Child.'

In 'Conversations,' Piaget is bemused by critics who find his theories rigid and restrictive. His deep and profound respect for children and childhood motivated him, like a child, to continually assimilate and accommodate in the process of constructing knowledge.

'That's the ideal I personally strive for,' he remarks to Bringuier, 'to remain a child to the end. Childhood is the creative phase par excellence!'

That makes it difficult to unequivocally state what his theories are, because Piaget was always growing and changing.

Piaget admits that he wasn't interested 'in individuals' but 'in what is is general in the development of intelligence and knowledge.' His denigrators might be surprised to learn that although Piaget did find evidence for fixed stages of developmental transition, he also came to the conclusion that 'the prime mover of evolution is behavior.'

Indeed, while Piaget wants to stay away from recommending best practices for teaching, Bringuier gets him to acknowledge there are methodologies that are might be more effective.

When Piaget claims that 'the role of the psychologist is, above all, to give the facts that the pedagogue can use and not put oneself in his place and give him advice,' Bringuier presses the issue, noting that theory can influence pedagogy.

Piaget answers by complaining that frequently 'absolutely nothing is done to teach the child the spirit of experimentation. He has lessons, he sees experiments demonstrated; but seeing them is not the same as doing them for himself. I'm convinced that one could develop a marvelous method of participatory education by giving the child the apparatus with which to do experiments and thus discover a lot of things for himself. Guided, of course.'

That sounds awfully close to Vygotsky's ideas, and the zone of proximal development, to me.

'Education,' Piaget goes on to say, 'for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society....But for me, education means making creators....You have to make inventors, innovators, not conformists.'

Inspiring words from the man who also tells his interviewer,'Everything one teaches a child prevents him from inventing or discovering.'

[Kin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many interesting aspects about Piaget's life. Began his study of mollusk at very, very young age, his turn towards epistemology, which led him to investigate the human mind, was such a fascinating route. As far as I know Piaget has been taught in many schools of education and psychology in Thailand, regarded as a mere psychologist of child learning and development. Thereby his epistemological interest has been regularly overlooked. And that's also means we always fail to notice another side of his thoughts: his philosophical complexities.

[99monkees · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to Piaget and his ideas. Piaget's output is vast and often it is very specialized. This book lets the reader into a series of private conversations where Piaget explains his work trajectory in simple language.

[Carlo Gubitosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piaget parla da Biologo, Epistemologo e Psicologo sulla sua ricerca orientata a capire i meccanismi della conoscenza

[Michael Tallman]

This book provides a window into the man Jean Piaget was, and clarifies misinterpreted aspects of his genetic epistemology. Highly recommended.

[Kike Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un muy bueno libro que nos permite ver a Piaget desde una perspectiva diferente.