Spirova, E. M. Jean Piaget’s Anthropological Ideas

Abstract: A Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is famous for his theory of cognitive development. To prove his theory, Jean Piaget used the basic concepts of other psychological schools. In particular, analyzing the concept of reaction as it was used by behaviorists he offered a concept of ‘operation’. The concept of gestalt that was the basic idea of gestalt psychology was replaced with the term ‘structure’. As a result, he created the genetic method that became the main methodological principle in the psychological theory. Researches of Piaget’s works also omit one important achievement of his theory. The Swiss researcher did not only try to prove his theory of mental development. He also addressed to the humanities and offered a number of serious anthropological ideas. When analyzing Jean Piaget’s views the author of the present article uses the conceptual constructs of philosophical anthropology. However, the author assumes that it is also possible to study the problem from the point of view of history, too. Following the manner of Piaget, the author of the article underlines the priority of the interdisciplinary approach to the studies of human. The novelty of the research is in viewing Jean Piaget as a representative of the anthropological branch of knowledge. According to the author, Jean Piaget used a new philosophical school of structuralism to combine methodological issues of biology with the philosophical theory of human. Piaget made a great contribution to axiology, too, by describing the hierarchy of human needs.

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