Jean Piaget Biography

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and philosopher best known for his work on the cognitive development in children. He identified his field of study as ‘genetic epistemology’, a theory which combines cognitive development with epistemological view. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, extent, and limits of human knowledge. What Piaget studied was the impact of genetics on the epistemological process. An intelligent child with a curious mind, Jean Piaget’s inclination towards scientific research was evident from his childhood when he began researching on an albino sparrow when he was just 11 years old. His interests later on were directed at psychoanalysis and he assisted Alfred Binet, the developer of Binet intelligence tests in marking the tests. During this time he became interested in the process of cognitive development in young children which differed considerably form the cognitive processes of older children and adults, and this motivated him to study the development of thinking processes in children. He considered education as a very important tool of imparting knowledge and believed that only education had the power of saving future societies from possible collapse. He founded the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva and served as its director till his death.