ABSTRACT
Three complementary processes seem to be at work in directing the evolution of reality as it is conceived by the child between the ages of 3 and 11. Child thought moves simultaneously: from realism to objectivity, from realism to reciprocity, and from realism to relativity. The notion of law presents in the child, as indeed in the whole history of thought up to modem times, two complementary features—universality and necessity. M. E. Meyerson has done very useful work in distinguishing clearly between legality and causality, legality being simply generality, while causality alone could serve as a foundation for necessity. The chapter seeks to find in what relation the logical structure characterising each stage stands to the corresponding real categories. Magic and autism are therefore two different sides of one and the same phenomenon—that confusion between the self and the world which destroys both logical truth and objective existence.
