Piaget in Paris: From ‘Autism’ to Logic

Abstract

From 1919 to 1921, Piaget studied in Paris. When he arrived there, his intellectual interests included biology, psychoanalysis, logic and the philosophy of science but he had done no empirical research with children. The opportunity to work in Binet’s former laboratory gave a direction to his thinking and research that endured a lifetime. The intellectual background to Piaget’s first writings on child development is described. In particular, Piaget’s wary interest in ‘autistic’ thinking is compared with his research on the emergence of logical thinking. The impact of this assumed opposition between two modes of thought on Piaget and on subsequent research in cognitive development is discussed.

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