Vico's principle that we can rationally know only what we ourselves have made as an early formulation of constructivism¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The book identifies Giambattista Vico's 1710 treatise on epistemology as, as far as the author knows, a first explicit formulation of constructivism. Von Glasersfeld recounts that "Vico's notions that we can rationally know only what we ourselves have made, and that the knowledge of poets and myth-makers is of a different kind, fitted well between some of the disconnected ideas in my head." Vico is treated as a pioneer of conceptual analysis alongside Bentham, anchoring the book's philosophical genealogy of radical constructivism.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Rational knowledge is restricted to what the knower has themselves made; knowledge of the natural world is of a different, non-rational kind

Constraints¶

• The author presents this as his own reading of Vico encountered through an early Italian edition of Principi di scienza nuova

Target Learners¶

• scholars and educators studying the epistemological foundations of constructivism

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding the philosophical genealogy of constructivist theories of knowing

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Piaget's genetic epistemology studies how the human mind moves from less sufficient to higher knowledge
• Trial constructivism as the root of constructivism (Piaget's personal constructivism)
• Constructivism as a theory of knowledge and learning with individualistic, social, and combined branches
• Constructivism learning theory: knowledge as assumption, learning as active construction, students as subjects, teachers as helpers

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• von Glasersfeld, E. (1995). Radical Constructivism: A Way of Knowing and Learning. Falmer Press. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED381352