ABSTRACT
It is a well-known fact that Jean Piaget was a precocious naturalist. At the age of 15, he was already a recognized expert in the field of mollusc taxonomy and the author of a number of articles in specialized journals. Piaget himself considered his early training an essential aspect of his intellectual biography, and he never forgot the importance of his years working with the malacologist Paul Godet (1836–1911), director of the Natural History Museum in Neuchâtel:
When I was eleven years old [1907], I had the chance to publish some remarks on an albino sparrow, then to present myself to the director of the zoological museum of my native town to ask permission to work there during my days off from school. … He took me for ‘famulus’, made me stick labels, taught me about collecting and about terrestrial and freshwater molluscs. … These beginnings were important for me. While some may get their school education in mathematics or in Latin, I received hands-on training working on a precise problem, that of the species and their innumerable variations according to their habitat, of the relations between genotypes and phenotypes, with a preference for studying adaptations to altitude … fresh-water, etc. In short, ever since this experience I have thought in terms of forms and the evolution of forms. 1
