Human Development: John Locke and Jean Piaget

John Locke was an English philosopher from the 17th century he was born August 29 , 1632 and passed away on October 28 , 1704. During his time he accomplished many things one of them was becoming the leader of a political group known as the Whigs. Besides that Locke had a good education which would later help him on. He studied from 1652 to 1667 he centralized himself into logic and metaphysics. Locke played a huge role in theology , economics , and education he was the one who introduced us to schools. Two of his main philosophies that are still used today in day are Separation of Power and the Empirical Theory of Knowledge. Have you ever wonder why there’s three branches of power in our government?

Separation of Power is the reason that was introduced by Locke. This philosophy brought the idea that if you split power into three separate chambers with their own duty and importance society will work better. Not only would society work better but neither of the compartments will gain more power than the other and they will keep an eye on each other so none of them would break the rules. Not only this but they have the ability to help each other out. As a result of the separation of power we got introduced to The Legislative , Judicial , and Executive branch. These branches help our government have a better function and so things can urn faster and better. Each branch has its own obligation and power so it is not fought for. This philosophy is not only applied to the government but it can even be applied to school. For example , student council power is divided. They have a president a vice president and a secretary power is broken down into three people so they can function better and help each other out. When we are born our brains are a white room with nothing no ideas no knowledge nothing. People slowly put things inside the in other words that they fill up your mind with ideas. This philosophy is called an Empirical Theory of Knowledge. The ideas that are placed into our brains come from what people tell you and the amount of things you have participated. This idea was opened up by Locke he said that you only have an opinion on something based on what people tell you or what you have experienced in life. But since you can’t experience everything you make a bias based on what others have told you , knowledge is composed from ideas other have brought to you. We don’t always get the point of what people express to us but applying our five sense to it gives us the chance to feel a stronger bond with the idea. This philosophy contribute to the theology that what is right to me can be wrong to you. An Empirical Theory of Knowledge is used today in American Society an example would be presidents.

Donald Trump is a person that many people have strong bias about. Some people might tell you that he is a great person and that he does the best for his people and protects them as he is supposed to do. But there’s is people who will disagree with that and tell you that all he does is harm people who have done nothing to him. This is an example of what’s wrong to you can be right to me people have made their opinions about Trump based on what they have heard and seen. Their idea about him was build up based on things they read or watched on television. To demonstrate another point I’ve been to Mexico I can tell you that it is so much fun and that you can do many things and there is freedom. But someone has has not gone can tell you that it is a dangerous place because of all the drug dealing that happens and kidnapping so they would think i’m lying about the freedom. They will take into consideration what I told them and make their idea about Mexico. All of these ethics were disposed by John Locke without him Separation of power would not exist nor the Theory of Knowledge. Power would probably just be given to one person and everything would turn into chaos and it would make it harder for the society to run in a superior manner. 

Jean Piaget believed that our development was in 4 different parts; the first part starts at 0-2 years called the sensorimotor stage. Sensorimotor meaning the eyes, smell, touch and hearing are in effect and the motor part comes because they learn to move their bodies and walk around and use our sensory parts. In this stage, the child is object permanent, meaning if an infant sees a cookie and the mother hides it behind their back—to the baby, that cookie disappeared and the infant focuses on something new. The next stage starts at around age 2-7 years called the preoperational stage. In this phase, this is when children start to engage and pretend play and begin to use symbols to make a meaning. They are also very egocentric meaning if they hide, they believe they cannot be seen or heard. The next stage starts at age 7-11 years old called the concrete operational stage. In this phase, this is where children understand and learn conservation; meaning, if you fill water into a bowl equally into two same size bowls, they will understand that the bowls has the same amount of water; however, if you put the same amount of water into a taller bowl and the small bowl, the child will say the taller bowl has the most. The last stage is considered at the age of 12 or greater called the formal operational stage. In this phase the child learns about abstract, actions and consequences of said action. Piaget also believed that moral reasoning began to take place. The next theorist to speak on will be Lawrence Kohlberg.

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