An attempt is made to interpret Piaget’s developmental theory of knowledge and Freud’s metapsychology with a common focus on the human capacity of symbolic knowing. Whereas Freud linked symbols dynamically to libido development, Piaget explained them as a function of sensorimotor object development and demonstrated the apparent mental regression on the newly acquired plane of symbolic representation as due to underdeveloped logical operations. By equating Freud’s eros drive as well as Piaget’s concept of constructive assimilation with the ethologically grounded tendency to ‘relate to the other (object)’ and subsequently to ‘represent the object symbolically’, both theories are enlarged in a social-relational perspective. A sketch for a unified epistemological synthesis is presented.

Keywords:
Epistemology, Freud, Knowledge, Piaget, Symbol
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© 1983 S. Karger AG, Basel
1983
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