Structuralism

(more in secs. , and )

Many years later Jean Piaget, influenced by Kant, took a structuralist view of development (most explicitly in his later work). He saw cognition and behavior arising by means of functions (organization and adaptation) and structural relations. Like Kant, Piaget saw the structure of the individual human mind as the source of our perception and rationality; but unlike Kant, he sought a biological explanation: a universal tendency in each organism toward self-regulation or equilibration, as it continuously encounters and adapts to its environment. Piaget argued that human beings are not born with categories or structures of thought but instead construct them through a long process of development which includes maturation + interaction with the world. Thus he rejected innatist views, including Kant's a priori categories. Unlike Kant, Piaget maintained that the structures which are imposed by children are very different from those imposed by adults.

As we see in sec. , for Piaget that process of construction, though influenced by social factors, has its ontogeny in sensory-motor activity, the interaction between physiology and physical (rather than social) environment.

Piaget's structures:

Not a priori, or innate
Different in child and adult
Constructed during development
(thr' maturation + interaction with physical environment)
Mechanism akin to biological self-regulation