A comparison is made between the experienced scientist and the young child in their reasoning processes and methods of reaching logical conclusions. (JD)

Giambattista Vico, an 18th-century Neapolitan philosopher, believed that, from children, adults could learn lessons they could not teach themselves. This learning, however, is predicated on the necessity that genuine childhood be allowed to exist and that logic and abstraction are not introduced to children too soon. (JMK)