ABSTRACT
Absolutism's role as a catalyst in the development of non-absolutist conceptions of mathematics is captured nicely by philosopher of mathematics education Paul Ernest: The absolutist view of mathematical knowledge has been subject to a severe, and in author view, irrefutable criticism. It does, however, set the stage for what follows in the rest of this chapter, including a presentation of Piaget's work as inspiring a more radical psychological constructivism, and Vygotsky's work as a precursor to more radical forms of social constructivism. At times it seems that Kitchener's project of establishing Piaget as a philosopher is born of a desire to elevate Piaget's status, although in highlighting Piaget the philosopher-or, more specifically, the epistemologist-it is distinctly possible that Kitchener does damage to Piaget's overall contributions. While Piaget's work is included mostly as a means to show how individual/psychological constructivism in general works, he did do extensive work on the acquisition of mathematical knowledge.
