Constructivism, emergence: a semantic and thematic analysis

Construction, emergence : two recurring terms in the field of contemporary cognitive sciences. This non technical study begins by making explicit some of their most gen­eral semantic and thematic dimensions. Two major conceptual families are thus characterized, respectively called assembly constructivism and genetic constructivism, in connection to the history of logic and computation, on the one hand, and to the theories of the genesis of forms, on the other hand. More specific views are next pre­sented, concerning the evolution of research in the past fifteen years: connectionist approaches, work on the emergence of symbolic functions, revival of Gestalt concep­tions of form and organization. It becomes increasingly evident, throughout a large interdisciplinary area, that the notions of construction and emergence are inseparably bound to each other.