"The current state of knowledge is a moment in history, changing just as rapidly as the state of knowledge in the past has ever changed and, in many instances, more rapidly"
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Certainty, Piaget implies, is always on a short lease. What sounds like a calm observation about “the current state of knowledge” is really a warning against mistaking today’s textbooks for bedrock. He frames knowledge not as a pile of facts but as a moving snapshot, “a moment in history” that will soon look dated, even quaint. The line works because it quietly demotes the reader: whatever you think you know is already mid-expiration.
As a developmental psychologist, Piaget is famous for arguing that minds don’t just absorb information; they actively build it, revise it, and discard it through stages. That background matters. He’s not only talking about scientific progress in the abstract. He’s hinting at a deeper mechanism: human understanding is structurally provisional. We assimilate what fits, accommodate what doesn’t, and the “state of knowledge” changes because the knower is always changing, individually and collectively.
The second clause sharpens the subtext into cultural critique. By noting that change is “in many instances, more rapidly” than in the past, Piaget anticipates the modern anxiety of acceleration: new methods, new instruments, new institutions producing revisions faster than ordinary life can metabolize them. The result is an ethical nudge disguised as a historical claim: hold your theories lightly, stay humble about expertise, and build systems (education, research, public debate) that can tolerate being wrong in public. Knowledge isn’t a monument; it’s ongoing construction with scaffolding still up.
As a developmental psychologist, Piaget is famous for arguing that minds don’t just absorb information; they actively build it, revise it, and discard it through stages. That background matters. He’s not only talking about scientific progress in the abstract. He’s hinting at a deeper mechanism: human understanding is structurally provisional. We assimilate what fits, accommodate what doesn’t, and the “state of knowledge” changes because the knower is always changing, individually and collectively.
The second clause sharpens the subtext into cultural critique. By noting that change is “in many instances, more rapidly” than in the past, Piaget anticipates the modern anxiety of acceleration: new methods, new instruments, new institutions producing revisions faster than ordinary life can metabolize them. The result is an ethical nudge disguised as a historical claim: hold your theories lightly, stay humble about expertise, and build systems (education, research, public debate) that can tolerate being wrong in public. Knowledge isn’t a monument; it’s ongoing construction with scaffolding still up.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
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