[Xmca-l] Re: Request: Chandler article

[Lplarry]

Martin, thanks for this request of Chandler’s article which has morphed to Terence Turner’s book review of “Genetic Epistemology”

Greg, thanks for Turner’s book review.
Turner says Piaget’s model of genetic epistemology is founded (Constructed?) upon a sharp distinction between (figurative) and (operational) modes of thought.
• Figurative modes are a broad category including: Perception imitation, and mental imagery (symbols). Symbols in the Sausserian *sense* of motivated or iconic signs. 
Piaget dismisses figurative thought (as a whole) as the type of thought that is the *imitation of states* as momentary and static pictures.
• Operational modes of thought are defined as consisting essentially of logical *manipulations* of a dynamic, fluid character. This dynamic is an operation of *inverse* or *logical* transformations.
Operational thought relies on (non-figurative) *signs*. (arbitrary, collectively standardized *tokens* that TYPICALLY denote *general* concepts.

The sharp distinction between operational and figurative thought is the distinction between collective cultural character (nature of) *signs* as opposed to private, individual character (nature of) *figurative symbols*.

I posted this fragment to juxtapose with James Ma’s exploration of word-picture modes of thought without piaget’s sharp distinctions

Sent from my Windows 10 phone

From: Greg Thompson