A Students' Guide to Piaget

Book excerpt: A Students' Guide to Piaget is a students' guide to the work of Jean Piaget, one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary psychology. It discusses Piaget's multifarious epistemological interests, his developmental psychology, and his solutions to the problems of mathematical epistemology. Piaget's contributions to education, as well as his early work on children's language and cognitive development, are also examined. This book is comprised of 10 chapters and begins with an overview of the major problem that confronts students when they first encounter Piaget's work: why he has done it. Piaget's attempt to answer some very important questions in the branch of philosophy called epistemology is also considered. The next chapter introduces the reader to the basic concepts of Piaget's psychology and his concern with the development of intelligence. The discussion then turns to his views about the sensorimotor phase, pre-operational thinking, and operational thinking in children. A brief summary of developmental periods in Piaget's psychology is presented, and his solutions to the problems of mathematical epistemology are outlined. The remaining chapters focus on Piaget's preoccupation with genetic epistemology, his contributions to education, and his work on children's language and cognitive development. The final chapter analyzes some of the objections that have been raised or may be raised to Piaget's work. This monograph will be a useful resource for psychology students.