Development

Qualitative and quantitative changes build on each other during de-velopment.

When assimilation and accommodation are in bal-anced coordination so neither one is dominant, equilibrium is achieved

helped Piaget express how thought isthe parts relate to the whole. He proposed that a small set of mental op-erations (mental actions) forms a structure that underlies much of ourthinking, even though this thinking may seem very diverse in content.

Piaget's simple but revolutionary solution to the problem of episte-mology is that knowledge is a process rather than a state. It is an eventor a relationship between the active knower and the known

Unlike mostepistemologists, who use logical arguments to support their views, Pi-aget rejected the armchair approach and formulated empirical hypothe-ses that could be tested

His con-cern with the classical issues in epistemology explains his interest in whatphilosophers traditionally have considered the basic categories of thought:time, space, causality, and quantity. These categories of thought are obviousto an adult but, in Piaget's way of thinking, may not be obvious to children

As Piagetviewed it, epistemology is "the problem of the relation between the act-ing or thinking subject and the objects of his experience"

It is true I am sociableand like to teach or to take part in meetings of all kinds, but I feel a com-pelling need for solitude and contact with nature. After mornings spentwith others, I begin each afternoon with a walk during which I quietlycollect my thoughts and coordinate them, after which I return to the deskat my home in the country

At last I had found my field of research

fascinated with the thought processes that appeared to lead tothe answers, especially the incorrect ones

"Now there can be no awareness of these qualities, hence these qualitiescannot exist, if there are no relationships among them, if they are not,consequently, blended into a total quality which contains them whilekeeping them distinct," and "positive theory of quality taking into ac-count only relationships of equilibrium and disequilibrium among ourqualities"

Conflicts between his religious and scientific teachings stimu-lated him to read hungrily through Bergson, Kant, Spencer, Comte,Durkheim, and William James, among others

In Piaget's view, moment-to-moment specific encoun-ters with objects or people lead to general ways of understanding theworld

albino sparrow he had observed ina park.

mechanics, seashells, birds