The child's conception of the world

1st pub. in English by Routledge and KeganPaul, Ltd., London, in 1929; reprinted in 1951.. Reprinted by Littlefield, Adams & Co. 1960, 1963, 1967, 1969, 1972 by arrangement with Humanities Press, Inc. New York

Introduction - Problems and methods. Part 1 - Realism. 1 The notion of thought. 2 Nominal realism. 3 Dreams. 4 Realism and the origin of the idea of participation. Part 2 - Animism. 5 Consciousness attributed to things. 6 The concept of "life". 7 The origins of child animism, moral necessity and physical determinism. Part 3 - Artificialism. 8 The origin of the sun and moon. 9 Meteorology and the origin of water. 10 The origin of trees, mountains and of the earth. 11 The meaning and origins of child artificialism. Appendix - Note on the relations between belief in efficacy and magic in connection with paragraphs 2 and 3 of Chapter 4.

'What conceptions of the world does the child naturally form at the different stages of its evelopment? To what extent does he distinguish the external world from an internal or subjective world and what limits does he draw between his self and objective reality? These are the questions which make up the first problem, the child's notion of reality. A second fundamental problem is the significance of explanations put forward by the child. What use does he make of the notions of cause and of law? Is the form of explanation presented by the child of a new type? These and like questions form the second problem, the child's notion of causality.'

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