{"product_id":"possibility-and-necessity-jean-piaget-9780816658497","title":"Possibility and Necessity: Volume 1 Volume 1","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePossibility and Necessity \u003c\/i\u003e was first published in 1987. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJean Piaget was preoccupied, later in life, with the developing child's understanding of possibility--how the child becomes aware of the potentially unlimited scope of possible actions and learns to choose among them. Piaget's approach to this question took on a new openness to real-life situations, less deterministic than his earlier, ground-breaking work in cognitive development. The resulting two-volume work--his last--was published in France in 1981 and 1983 and is not available for the first time in English translation. \u003ci\u003ePossibility and Necessity \u003c\/i\u003e combines theoretical interpretation with detailed summaries of the experiments that Piaget and his colleagues used to test their hypotheses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePiaget's intent, in Volume 1, is to explore the process whereby possibilities are formed. He chooses to understand \"the possible\" not as something predetermined by initial conditions; rather, in his use of the term, possibilities are constantly coming into being, and have no static characteristics--each arises from an event which has produced an opening onto it, and its actualization will in turn give rise to other openings. In perceiving that a possibility can be realized, and in acting upon it, the child creates something that did not exist before.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo observe this process, Piaget and his associates devised a series of thirteen problems appropriate for children ranging in age from four or five to eleven or twelve; they were asked to name all possible ways three dice might be arranged, for example, or a square of paper sectioned. The experimenters had two primary aims--to discover to what extent the child's capacity to see possibilities develops with age, and to determine the place in cognitive development of this capacity--does it precede or follow the advent of operational thought structures? In charting this process, Piaget discerns a growing interaction between possibility and necessity. How the child comes to understand necessity and achieves a dynamic synthesis--or equilibrium -- between the possible and the necessary is discussed by Piaget and his colleagues in Volume 2, \u003ci\u003eThe Role of Necessity in Cognitive Development\u003c\/i\u003e, also published by Minnesota.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jean Piaget\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0816658498\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780816658497\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/25\/1987\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 168\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.51lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.36d","brand":"Jean Piaget","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46906605207807,"sku":"9780816658497","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_eb3930ee-a834-491d-9719-e79b50d9c23d.jpg?v=1748770895","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/possibility-and-necessity-jean-piaget-9780816658497","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}