by Dr. Margaret Lowenfeld

The purpose of this chapter is to study the subjective aspect of the making of a World, and to give some idea of what actually takes place within the individual who sets out to make a World. Observation of both children and adults during this process suggests that there are differences between the inner experience of children and adults during the construction of a World. In children there is more excitement and less reflection. In adults, for the most part, the reflective element is stronger; yet in both, the same complete absorption in the process is observable. But since children cannot give a coherent account of what they are experiencing, it is to adults we must look for a verbal description of their experience.

But before we embark upon a study of this aspect we need to pause a moment and reflect upon the nature of language and the nature of the communication that can be conveyed by this means.

During the past quarter of a century, emphasis in philosophy has come increasingly to be laid upon the study of words and on their relationship to the facts or experience they purport to communicate. Only those words or statements for which there exists some means of verification of their generally accepted significance are accepted as valid evidence of the existence of that which the word sets out to signify.