that's going to talk about cognitive development

通过他的理论
by talking about his ideas.

来讲讲认知发展
His idea was that children are active thinkers;

皮亚杰认为儿童是主动思考者
they're trying to figure out the world.

他们试图去理解世界
He often described them as little scientists.

他常把儿童称为小科学家
And incidentally, to know where he's coming from on this,

我想顺便提一下他为何会去研究儿童
he had a very dramatic and ambitious goal.

他有着一个宏伟且远大的目标
He didn't start off because he was interested in children.

他研究的初衷并不是出于对儿童的兴趣
He started off

而是出于
because he was interested in the emergence of knowledge in general.

他对认识产生的一般规律的兴趣
It was a discipline he described as genetic epistemology

皮亚杰主张发生认识论
the origins of knowledge.

即认识的起源