Jean Piaget: A Most Outrageous Deception

by Webster R. Callaway

Overview

Jean Piaget is generally considered to be one of the most important theorists in the field of cognition, an honor which is questioned by this author. "Piaget believes that magic is a universal social reality in adult society. . . Piaget was no doubt convinced that his magic would significantly affect the academic world. If we accept this as a reasonable assumption, we should consider the distinct possibility that his entire professional output should in fact be interpreted as an extended work of magic. It is ironic in the extreme that he was honored by the American Psychological Association and Time magazine as a great scientist when he is saturated with occultic ideas that are completely antithetical to scientific pursuits." In support of his position, Calloway offers this text focused on an analysis of Piaget's frequent dual use of the meanings of words within the same paragraph. The author's credentials are not given. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781560729501
Publisher:	Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/28/2001
Pages:	321
Product dimensions:	7.09(w) x 10.24(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Chapter 1	Introduction to Piaget's Metaphysical Theory	1
	Initial Discoveries	1
	Difficulties to be Overcome	3
	Piaget meets Hegel's Absolute	4
	Irreconcilable Motivations	6
	A Fearsome, Pessimistic Theory	7
	Prescription for Educational Disaster: Spontaneous Development	12
	Logic as Operational Activity	15
	Metaphysical Action versus Physical Action	17
	An Alien View of Piaget	21
	Why Piaget Cannot accept Natural Science	23
	The Purpose of the Book	24
	Piaget's Dual System	25
	The Marvelous Monad	26
	The Absolute Subject	31
	Activities of the Absolute Subject	36
Chapter 2	Piaget's Dual System	43
	Piaget's Two Biologies	43
	Two Kinds of Knowledge	44
	A Multiplicity of Synonyms and Verbalisms	46
	Two Minds	49
	Another Kind of Atom	53
	Another Kind of Space	55
	The Living Structure Sans Heart Sans Brain	56
	The Two Subjects	58
	True Cause is Not Physical	64
	An Alien Experience, An Alien Science	65
	Spiritual Objects and Physical Objects	68
	Two Kinds of Development	69
	Psychological Necessity and Invariant Function versus Physical Biology	70
	Specific Heredity versus General Heredity	73
	Vicarious Actions and Functions Signify Dual Entities	76
	Pure Movements or Actions Which do Not Take Time	80
	Brainless Knowledge	81
	A Non-Physical Ontogenetic Development	82
	The Two Egos, The Two Worlds, The Two Societies and The Two Civilizations	83
Chapter 3	The Marvelous Monad	87
	In the Beginning was the Biological Organization of Monads	87
	The Disingenuous Role of Experiment	89
	The Purpose of The Physical Universe	90
	The Two Starting Points	90
	Hegel's Concept of Physical Existence	92
	The Two "Initial" Structures	92
	An Unusual Way to Describe Monads	94
	Mischievous Fun With the Term "Psychology"	94
	Why Piaget has the Duty to Prevaricate	96
	The Other Meaning of Egocentrism	97
	Lying is Good but Physical Knowledge is Bad	99
	Piaget Rejects Natural Science	100
	The Absolute Versus the Judeo-Christian God	101
	The Creation of the Physical Universe	102
	The Measurement of Assimilatory Progress	104
	Piagetian Chemistry and Physics	105
	Reaction of the Surrounding Medium	107
	Natural Phenomena are Produced by Monads	108
	Monads Account for Sight	108
	Monads the Basis of Memory	109
	Child Physics is Based on Monads	110
	"Air" is Alive	111
	All "Air" Belongs to the Same Being	111
	"Air" is an All-Pervading Substance	111
	Observation of a Physical Substance Cannot Lead to an Understanding of Metaphysical Substance	112
	The Creation and Maintenance of Life is Based on "Air"	113
	External and Internal Monads are Called the Two Motors	113
	The Living Monads Account for Force and Ego	114
	Monads the Basis of Thought and Dreams	115
	Uses Air Again to Arrive at Quasimagic Substance	116
	Immanent Monads Teach the Child About their "Atomic" Nature	118
Chapter 4	The Absolute Subject	123
	A Pathological Excess of Synonyms	123
	Piaget is a Hegelian, not a Kantian	123
	Piaget's Philosophy of a Non-Human Absolute	127
	The Absolute Entity as Subject	128
	Physical Experience versus Logico-Mathematical Experience	130
	The Physical Subject versus the Metaphysical Subject	132
	Formal Thought	134
	The Absolute Entity as Immanent Subject	136
	The Epistemological Subject	138
	The Absolute Entity as Structure	141
	Explicatory Function and Implicatory Function	145
	Endogenous or Normative Structures versus Exogenous or Physical Structures	147
	Form versus Matter	149
	The Continuum of Unobservable Corpuscles	151
	The Living Field or Lattice-Group of Monads	152
	The Structure is Non-Contingent and Error Free	154
	Piaget's Method of Proof: Use One Characteristic of His System to Prove Another Characteristic of His System	155
	Genetic Psychology Describes the Development of an Eternal Structure	157
	The Permanent Immanent Structure	158
	The Absolute Entity as Space	163
	The Structure and Functions of Space Depend Upon the Monads	163
	Piaget Begins with Physical Shapes and Ends with Metaphysical Monads	165
	The Spatial Container is the Operational Mind	166
	The Spatial Continuum Produces Logico-Mathematical Operations	168
	Physical Movement and Metaphysical Movement	171
	Flavell's Rejection of Piaget's Metaphysical Psychology	172
	The Permanent Immanent Space	176
Chapter 5	Activities of the Absolute	181
	Metaphysical Development	181
	Physical Experiments are Intrinsically Invalid	186
	The Stages of Metaphysical Development	190
	A Survey of Various Ways Piaget Utilizes the Concept of Stage	192
	The Six Stages in the Development of the Object Concept	197
	The Six Stages in the Development of the Spatial Field and Groups	200
	The Six Stages in the Development of Causality	201
	The Six Stages in the Development of the Temporal Field	203
	Conclusions Regarding the Four Sets of Six Stages	204
	Overview of Developmental Stages	204
	The Absolute Subject Develops Himself	208
	Construction as Development of the Absolute Subject	216
	Knowledge as the Developmental Process	223
	Science as the Developmental Process	231
	The Reversal of Reality	240
	The Metaphysical Production of Numbers	247
	The Metaphysical Origin of Fractions and Proportion	252
	The Metaphysical-Physical Basis of Magic	253
	Word Magic	256
	The Mental Image as a Precursor of Magic	257
	Magic as an Efficacious Reality	259
	Piaget's Professional Output an Extended Work of Magic	260
	Appendices	263
Appendix A	Form	263
Appendix B	Group	266
Appendix C	Schemata	270
Appendix D	Structure of Thought	275
Appendix E	Intelligence	278
Appendix F	System	282
Appendix G	Life	284
Appendix H	Self - Ego - I	288
Appendix I	Substance - Person	294
Appendix J	Totality - Whole - Universal	298
Appendix K	Organism - Organ	302
Appendix L	Organization	304
	Appendix M	306
	Bibliography	313
	Index	317