Quotations: Structure and Construction

«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)

«School imparts knowledge that directly or indirectly serves to solve everyday problems and gives people a picture of reality; it (school) develops interests and values which help people to order and orient their behaviour. Action schemata, operations and concepts and the world knowledge to which they are linked have exactly this function, on the one hand in the cognitive domain and on the other hand in the sphere of interests and motives, as soon as their structures become bestowed with value and get intrinsically interesting.» (1983a, 353)

«Processes of construction do not simply occur. They need to be triggered and guided by people who know the end product and know how to lead to this end product.» (1969, 76/77)

«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)

«We follow SELZ, who stated at the beginning of this century (SELZ 1913, 1922) that human thinking is ordered in propositions of facts (Sachverhältnisse). We make it a fundamental methodological postulate: The structures of thought must be described in terms of the subject matter.» (1983a, 387)

«Structures are constructed. Constructing the finished product includes the process of construction in which it emerges. Our structuralism is constructive.» (1983a, 390)

«If we therefore undertake to let the child capture not only all sub-elements, but also the overall structure of an operational complex, it does not suffice to let the student carry out each single step of the thought himself. He must be led to establish the fundamental (intrinsic) relationships that characterize an operational complex, and only thereafter integrate the partial operations. The child’s exploring therefore needs to be given a framework, which from the very outset is aligned to the whole organization and which confers meaning to all steps that are taken in the course of searching. Now, this power which drives the process of inquiry can be engendered through nothing else but through a problem that is vivid in the student’s thinking.» (1951/1976, 91/92)

«When one speaks of ‘formation of thought’, one means ‘formation of operations’, and when one speaks of ‘formation of operations’, one means ‘building up operations’. The building up of operations is accomplished over the course of seeking and researching, and all seeking and researching arises from a problem.» (1951/1976, 94/95)

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