Piaget on Contradiction

Abstract

Within the series, Studies of Genetic Epistemology, Piaget has recently written two volumes on the development of contradiction. For Piaget, contradiction does not take place in reality or in the mind only, but primarily between actions; it results from the primacy of the positive aspect of actions and the coordination of actions upon their less accessible negative aspect. Equilibration characterizes the progressive compensations between these two aspects, leading to the resolution of contradictions.