Jean Piaget

Essay by bpelusoUniversity, Bachelor'sB+, March 2014

download word file, 9 pages 0.0

Key Ideas Presented by Jean Piaget

The Moral Judgment of the Child, written by Jean Piaget, offers necessary insight on being able to understand the moral development of children during the early stages in their life. Piaget examines this through studying the rules of the game of marbles, adult constraint and moral realism and the development of the idea of justice and cooperation. In the following book review, I will discuss Jean Piaget's main concepts and ideas found in The Moral Judgment of the Child and synthesize the arguments he presents. The main concepts that will be reviewed include: the practice and consciousness of rules, the three types of rules, the two kinds of respect, moral realism and the two types of morality in relation to punishment, responsibility and justice.

The Practice and Consciousness of Rules

Little children may discover it to be strenuous attempting to learn the rules, which they notice while practicing them, unless they have been paired up together.

Children will practice these rules when an adult asks to given them an explanation about all the rules that the child may or may not know. After the practice of rules has come into play, the consciousness of rules will become evident, where an adult will begin to ask the child if he/she can invent a rule, and whether or not that rule will coincide with existing rules. The child will also be able to interpret if the rules are fair (Piaget 1997: 25). In the examination of the practice of rules there are four sequential stages, and the consciousness of rules has three.

The practice of rules has four sequential stages, which have more to do with social examination, rather than age. The first stage is 'motor and individual character,' where the child is able...