Hans G. Furth

Children Constructing Social Reality: A Frame Analysis of Social Pretend Play

Social pretend play is interpreted as children’s spontaneous co-construction of shared realities, and theoretical questions about the quality and varieties of these realities are raised. The discourse

Piaget, IQ and the Nature-Nurture Controversy

PIAGET’S concepts of experience and subject object interaction are clarified. Species-specific developmental experiences that are common to all people are distinguished from particular learned experiences on which individual differences are based. Four basic assumptions of IQ tests age constancy, scholastic validity, standard environment and performance sufficiency are examined and found alien to Piaget’s theory. In conclusion, heredity is not a concept that can be statistically separated from environment and thus from Piaget’s standpoint the nature-nuture controversy is devoid of meaning.

On Language and Knowing in Piaget’s Developmental Theory

Within Piaget’s developmental theory the distinction between figurative and operative knowing is clarified and related to symbolic functioning. Acquisition of language is placed within the framework o

The ‘Radical Imaginary’ Underlying Social Institutions: Its Developmental Base

Castoriadis proposes the ‘radical imaginary’ as the psychological foundation of human society. A developmental analysis of this concept links it on the cognitive side to what Piaget describes as objec

Symbol Formation: Where Freud and Piaget Meet.

An attempt is made to interpret Piaget’s developmental theory of knowledge and Freud’s metapsychology with a common focus on the human capacity of symbolic knowin

Thinking in deaf adolescents: Language and formal operations☆

Abstract Seven deaf adolescent boys, poor in written and oral English, but above average in tested intelligence were observed on six tasks of formal thinking. No subject clearly succeeded on all tasks but five subjects succeeded on at least one. The results were discussed within the framework of Piagets theory and supported the hypothesis that propositional thinking can develop at least to its primary formation without the support of linguistic competence. Educational implications, particularly for language-handicapped children, are presented.

CONCERNING PIAGET'S VIEW ON THINKING AND SYMBOL FORMATION

Piagets symbolic function is examined in the light of some American interpretations and of recent theoretical developments. Piaget differentiates within cognition 2 aspects; operative, acting on and transforming a reality state, the basis of intelligent understanding; figurative, referring to the static configuration. Symbolic functioning includes both aspects; a symbol as signifier with a figurative content, different from and assimilated to operative intelligence which is the symbols source and referent. While symbolic functioning is indissociable from human cognition, a particular symbolic product (e.g., image, language) can be considered a supportive but not a constitutive element of operativity.

Freud, Piaget and Macmurray: A theory of knowledge from the standpoint of personal relations

Abstract The following comparisons between Freuds and Piagets concepts are proposed: eros drive = constructive assimilation = direction toward the object in the sense of love for newness and otherness; death drive = constrictive assimilation = direction away from or destruction of the object out of fear for self to preserve the system. Eros and assimilation drive combine in the developing object and symbol formation to transform personal relations and knowledge. These psychological theories are further confirmed by evolutionary considerations about human social relations and by Macmurrays philosophy of personal relations as the primary function of reason.

Reflections on Piaget's sociological studies

Abstract Reflecting on Piagets recently translated collection of sociological studies, we highlight some salient points in his approach to sociological issues. At the same time we attempt to explain the contrast between Piagets singular influence in cognitive and developmental psychology with nothing comparable in empirical sociology. We believe that our own social research is a genuine continuation of what had remained on a speculative level in Piaget. One of us focused on the constructive, the other on the interrelational aspect of Piagets thought.

Human Mind in Human Society

Piaget’s notion of the permanent object is elaborated as the logical competence to construct mental objects, ushering in a new developmental stage of mind beyond sensorimotor action. The claim is made