Quotations: Continuity of Acting and Thinking

«In action we see a striving for order and structure, which continues in a pure form in thinking. So, action is geared towards a goal of transparency and order. Its pursuit motivates the actor and the thinker, for where there is order there is life; confusion and chaos mean death.» (1980a, 16)

«The Real is the structure, the material is structure of lower order. The being is structured. It has a shape. The reality is order. Chaos is nothing. Creation means ordering: disconnecting and connecting. Therefore, thinking means generating existence. By thinking, we partake in the divine creativity. The constructed reality is a piece of reality which did not previously exist. (…) Any life is order: the organic and the mental. I accept PIAGET’s fundamental thesis (…) which postulates continuity between mental and biological life. Orders build up progressively. Reason does not encounter the material ‘from above’. Ratio is order at all levels.» (1981a, 390)

«The operations of thinking develop out of action. We have assigned a learning-theoretical and pedagogical (didactical) meaning to this developmental psychological thesis: The learning processes need to constantly start from an action, time after time. Within the action, it is possible to realize the basic structures of a conceptual experience. Subsequently, we strive for the gradual internalization, systematization and linguistic coding of that which has previously been acquired through acting. The concept is the theoretical counterpart to the action schema. It is objectified in the linguistic sign, while the action is objectified in the concrete outcome of the action (AEBLI 1981, 118). The hierarchical structure, however, is shared by both.» (1983a, 386)

«A problem whose objective is to trigger or discover an operation is always an action schema that can be realized, be it by manipulating concrete objects or with the help of drawings on which students work by reshaping, dividing, transferring them etc.» (1951/1976, 96)

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