Mental structures and logical procedures in children

Abstract

Genetic epistemology is a project whose principles Piaget established as well as the subject (knowledge). This epistemology is less interested in the “why” but rather in the “how” of the question: How does knowledge develop? In order to answer this question, Piaget based himself on child psychology and especially his psycho-genetic method, and he found himself in what he calls operational logic. He demonstrated that this logic is genetic, and he used it to demonstrate the development and progression of knowledge. How does a child succeed in thinking logically and then constructing logic? How can the child arrive at concrete logical operations: the class, the relationship between the whole and the part...etc. How does the child move from the concrete to the abstract? The answers to these questions were formulated based on experiments carried out by Piaget on children and adolescents.