Invention in Piagetan Theory

   1) The Variety of Human Invention and the Variety of Life Forms

   Although we have taken no voyage comparable to Darwin's it seems to us that the variety of human inventions seems in its own way as overwhelming and inexplicable as the infinite variety of life forms that Darwin saw. (Feldman, 1980, p. 36)

   2) Invention in Piagetan Theory

   he sudden inventions characteristic of the sixth stage [of infant development] are in reality the product of a long evolution of schemata and not only of an internal maturation of perceptive structures.... This is revealed by the existence of a fifth stage, characterized by experimental groping.... What does this mean if not that the practice of actual experience is necessary in order to acquire the practice of mental experience and that invention does not arise entirely preformed despite appearances? (Piaget, 1952, p. 348)