Jean Piaget's program for studying the origins and development of knowledge through empirical investigation of how children's cognitive structures change across developmental stages.
Epistemology as empirical science: rather than asking how knowledge is possible in the abstract (Kant) or analyzing its logical structure (analytic philosophy), Piaget asked how knowledge actually develops in the human organism from birth to maturity. The genetic method: studying knowledge by studying its genesis — the developmental sequence from sensorimotor intelligence to formal operations. Key stages: sensorimotor (0-2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), formal operational (11+). Each stage involves qualitatively different cognitive structures, not just more of the same. Transformed developmental psychology and educational theory worldwide.
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