The Quest for Mind: Piaget, Levi-Strauss, and the Structuralist Movement

307 Pages·1974·13.37 MB·English

by  Howard Gardner

BY HOWARD
GARDNER
PlACET, LEVI-STRAUSS,
AND THE
STRUOURALIST
MOVEMENT
394-71938-7 $2.45 V-938
The
Quest for Mind
Piaget, Levi -Strauss,
and the
Structuralist
Movement
Howard Gardner
o
Vintage Books
A Division of Random House, New York
The Quest for Mind
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION. January 1974
Copyright © 1972 by Howard Gardner
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States
by Random House. Inc. • New York. and simultaneously
in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf. Inc .• in 1973.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
GardIler. Howard.
The quest for inind.
Includes bibliographical references.
I. Piaget.Jean, 1896- 2. Levi-Strauss,
Claude. 3. Structuralism. I. Title.
[B841-4-G37 1974] 301'·045 75-4575
ISBN 0-894-71938-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
For Judy
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
I A New Approach to the Social Sciences
A New Development in the Social Sciences 3
2 The French Intellectual Tradition and the
Roots of Structuralism: A Structural-Devel-
opmental Analysis 15
II The Architects of Structuralism
3 Piaget 51
4 Levi-Strauss III
III An Assessment of Structuralism: Problems
and Prospects
5 The Relationship Between Two Varieties
of Strtlcturalism 165
viii CONTENTS
6 Structuralism as a World-View 213
Appendix 249
Notes 257
Index follows page 276
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permis.
sion to use the material indicated:
Philosophical Library; Inc• • for material from H. Bergson. An Introduction
to Metaphysics, Littlefield Adams. New Jersey. 1965.
William Morrow and Co. • for material from M. Mead. Sex and Tempera.
ment in Three Primitive Societies, William Morrow. New York. 1955.
Harper and Row. Publishers. for material from C. Levi·Strauss. The Raw
and the Coo1ced, Harper and Row. New York. 1969.
Simon and Schuster. Inc. • for material from Knowledge Among Men, Simon
and Schuster. New York. 1966.
W. W. Norton and Co• • for material from J. B. Watson. Behaviorism, New
York. 1950; J. Piaget. The Origins of Intelligence, New York. 1965.
Basic Books, Inc.. Publisher.. for material from J. Piaget. Structuralism,
translated and ed~ted by Chaninah Maschler. Basic Books, Inc. •
Publisher. . New York. 1970; from B. Inhelder and J. Piaget. The
Growth of Logical Thin1cing from Childhood to Adolescence: An Essay
on the Construction of Formal Operational Struciures, translated by
Anne Parsons and Stanley Milgram, Basic Book. . Inc• • Publishers.
New York. 1958; from J. Piaget. The Construction of Reality in the
Child, translated by Margaret Cook. Basic Book. . Inc.. Publishers. New
York,1954.
The New Yor1c Times, for material from "There Are No Superior Societie. ...
S. de Gramont. The New Yor1c Times Magazine, 1968, Copyright by
The New Yor1c Times. Reprinted by permission.
ix
X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Dover Publications. for reproduction of a figure (p 225) from Primitive
Art by F. Boas. Dover Publications. New York. 1955.
E. P. Dutton and Co •• Inc. • for material from Bronislaw Malinowski.
Argonauts of the Western Pacific, New York. 1964. Published by E. P.
Dutton and Co. • and used with their permission.
Humanities Press. Inc .• and Routledge and Kegan Paul for material from
J. Piaget. Judgment and Reasoning in the Child, Littlefield Adams,
New Jersey. 1964; J. Piaget. The Child's Conception of the World,
Littlefield Adams. New Jersey, 1965; ]. Piaget. Language and Thought
of the Child, World Publishing Co., Cleveland. 1965.
University of Chicago Press and George Weidenfeld and Nicholson Ltd., for
material from C. Levi·Strauss. The Savage Mind, University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1966.
Georges Borchardt. Inc. • for material from C. Levi·Strauss. Tristes Tro·
piques, Atheneum. New York. 1964.
The Free Press. Macmillan Co .• and Routledge and Kegan Paul. for material
from M. Mauss. The Gilt, W. W. Norton. New York. 1967.
Professor Roman ]akobson for material from his book Child Language
Aphasia and Phonological Universals, Mouton. The Hague. 1968.
The New York Academy of Sciences and Professor Edmund Leach. for
material and a diagram adapted from E. Leach. "Uvi·Strauss in the
Garden of Eden." Transactions of the New Yorlt Academy of Sciences,
Series II. Vol. XXIII. No.4.
Social Research (New York). for material adapted from "Piaget and Levi·
Strauss: T.he Quest for Mind." Vol. 57 (1970). 548-65.
Semiotica and Mouton and Co. • Publishers (The Hague). for material
adapted from "The Structural Analysis of Protocols and Myths." Vol.
5 (1972). 31-57.
The Human ContelCt (London). for material adapted from "Structure and
Development." 1972. in press.
Preface
Six years ago, I attended Professor Claude Levi-Strauss's
memorable Huxley Lecture on kinship study, and shortly
thereafter, I witnessed Professor Jean Piaget leading a
provocative seminar on the biology of knowledge. Curi
osity brought me to these events, for, though aware
of their eminence in the social sciences, I had not read
a word by either man. Whether it was the ideas or the
remarkable personalities of these two savants which most
affected me I no longer recall, but I was sufficiently moti
vated to pick up several of their books. Much of the argu
ment remained obscure upon initial reading; but I was left
with a strong impression that something important was
being said. As a result, in the ensuing months, I dipped
repeatedly into their volumes. And in recent years, while
pursuing graduate studies in social relations, I have read
through and reread the major writings of both men, as
well as many of their less-known works. I have audited
courses which treated each thinker and have assigned
their writings in my own classes. Through these efforts to
enhance my own understanding of structuralism and to
xi