This is a selection of the most important of Piaget's writings spanning a period of some seventy years. These writings cover Piaget's contribution to modern psychological knowledge in a way that clarifies and illuminates his aims, ideas, and underlying themes.--From back cover.

A milestone of child psychology, The Child's Conception of the World explores the ways in which the reasoning powers of young children differ from those of adults. What conceptions of the world does the child naturally form at the different stages of its development? To what extent does the child distinguish the external world from an internal or subjective world and what limits does he or she draw between the self and objective reality? These questions make up the first problem, the child's notion of reality. A second fundamental problem is the significance of explanations put forward by the child. What use does he or she make of the notions of cause and law? Is the form of explanation presented by the child a new type? These and like questions form the second problem, the child's notion of causality. Jacques Voneche, Director of the Piaget Archives in Geneva, Switzerland, provides a preface to this classic in which he reveals the provanance of The Child's Conception of the World within the context of Piaget's other work and the then-burgeoning field of developmental psychology.

Inhelder in her introduction. The reason for this unity is that explanatory adequacy can be attained only by exploring the formative and constructive aspects of development. To explain a psychologic reaction or a cognitive mechanism (at all levels, including that of scientific thought) is not simply to describe them, but to comprehend the processes by which they were formed; failing that, one can but note results without grasping their meaning. JEAN PlACET VI Man distinguishes himself from other creatures primarily by his abstract reasoning capacity and his ability to communicate his knowledge by highly complex symbolic processes. What is called "humanity" and progress is to a large degree a measure of his consciousness and the deployment of his creative potentials. There are few scientists who have explored the universe of cogni tion, and contributed to the understanding of the realm of knowledge, with greater genius, care, and scientific intuition than Jean Piaget and his longtime collaborator Barbel Inhelder. Professor Inhelder and her assistant Dr. Harold Chipman realized this book in spite of the heavy load of research, teaching, and administra tive duties in a rapidly expanding Institute. It is therefore a particular pleasure for me to presen t this book.

Piaget's most important works on child psychology are included as well as a summary of his novel, Recherche, and writings on education, philosophy, and biology

Jean Piaget is one of the greatest names in psychology. A knowledge of his ideas is essential for all in psychology and education. Sociological Studies is one of his major works to remain untranslated. Now an international team of Piaget experts has got together to ensure that this important work is available in English. This classic text, exploring the role of social experience in the development of understanding, shows the general perception of Piaget as someone who took insufficient account of social factors in psychology to be false.