ABSTRACT
Traditionally, epistemology is a branch of philosophy. Piaget’s central project was to make it an experimental science founded on biology. In this project, psychology is both a link between the structures of the organism and those studied by epistemology, and it permits the experimental study of the psychological realisation of epistemological structures in the mind. Thus, the problems that determine Piaget’s research programme are epistemological ones, and he rightly insists on the fact that his work cannot be reduced to “a research in pure psychology”. His genetic psychology appears as a “by-product” (to quote the terms of an award he received from the American Association of Psychology), because it belongs to the experimental part of the project—it is a means and not an end in itself.
