ABSTRACT
Philosophical epistemology deals with such questions as "What is knowledge?" and "How is knowledge possible?” Obviously, Piaget does not claim that constructivist epistemology can resolve such questions directly. Rather, Piaget's strategy is to transform philosophical into empirical questions. For example, Plato's normative question "What is knowledge?" is a standard request for the defining features which all-and-only cases of knowledge possess. It is Piaget's claim that his transformed questions are empirical and epistemological. His position is outlined in an early discussion of the relation of scientific psychology and religious values. There are two respects in which intellectual construction is normative. First, the process is defined as the construction of better knowledge. Second, the process is defined in terms of progressively ordered stages. Second, Piaget's commitment to a stage-theory is compatible with this normative conception. Piaget's proposal is to regard action as an instantiation of modality. To act is to do something and so to know how to do something.
