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36 Jean Piaget
then often converge, even closely at times, with the concepts of authors who
neither have nor wish to have any understanding of philosophical dialectics. For
example Pavlov, whose work was so significant in the arena of Soviet dialectics,
often repeated that he knew nothing whatever of that philosophy; which was of
no importance since his work involved a methodology of actions which others
undertook to comment upon speculatively. In the psychology of psycho-genetic
development, studies on the launching of intellectual operations on the basis of
pre-operative and sensory-motor regulations, on the r61e of imbalance or con-
tradictions and restoration of balance through new syntheses and extensions -
in short, all the constructivism which characterizes the progressive constitution
of cognitive structures - have often been related to dialectical interpretations
without there having normally been a direct influence. Obviously such parallels
may be used by followers of methodological dialectics which only attempt to
clarify the trend of the sciences of development without interfering with the
sciences themselves ; and this work of comparison and epistemological reflexion
can only be helpful to them.
It has, however, also been possible since the time of Kant and Hegel to con-
ceive a philosophical form of dialectics which, like many other philosophies,
sometimes seeks to found or even to direct the sciences. In such a case, it
ceases to be anything more than one system of interpretation among many.
Nevertheless it has been of very great importance, for in the case in point, it
can base itself on a tested methodology which coincides with the spontaneous
methodology of many disciplines, as has just been recalled. The only problem of
interest to us, then, is that of correspondence between ideas and facts.
The influence of philosophical dialectics has been translated into concrete
form in the fields of sociology and economics, and it is undeniable that Marxist
dialectics have exercised a very great influence in this respect. It is interesting
to note here, because this study bears essentially on the trends of the sciences of
man and is not designed to offer a doctrinal synthesis, that one can in the present
state of things distinguish three types of attitude towards a movement of this
kind. Some people see Marxist dialectics as an expression of the dominant
truths at present accessible in the sociological field. Others believe the contrary
and see in it just one of several interpretations with no presently demonstrable
superiority. Yet others consider it a ‘meta-sociology’ of obvious interest for
guidance (clearly the best available) in research work, but offering no possibility
of experimental verification, and lying in the field of mere interpretation.
III. A third example is of quite a different kind: that of phenomenology, that is,
a philosophy which does not claim to lead to scientific research or to elucidate
the methods of already-constituted sciences, but rather to parallel these sciences
themselves by offering a truer understanding of the realities under considera-
tion.
With reference to this group of tendencies (of which Bergsonism was an earlier
example) one should observe at the start that conflicts between the sciences and
some philosophies have existed only since the 19th century, at a time when
some philosophers dreamed of a speculative power which would permit them to