Nineteenth-century developmental psychologist Jean Piaget examines the child's notions of reality and causality at various stages of development.

Originally published: London ; New York : Routledge, 1997. With new pref.

Prerface / Jacques Voneche -- Introduction -- Problems and methods -- Part One. Realism. 1. The notion of thought -- 2. Nominal relaism -- 3. Dreams -- 4. Realism and the origin of the idea of participation -- Part Two. Animism. 5. Consciousness atributed to things -- 6. The concept of 'life' -- 7. The origins of child animism, moral necessity and physical determinism -- Part Three. Artificialism. 8. The origin of the sun and moon -- 9. Metereology and the origin of water -- 10. The origin of trees, mountains and of the Earth -- 11. The meaning and origins of child artificialism -- Appendix. Note on the relations between belief in efficacy and magic, in connection with [sections] 2 and 3 of chapter 4.