'This book will be a profitable read for scholars working in all these areas, as well as in philosophy.' B. T. Harding, Choice
Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Development and the origin of psychological concepts; 2. The history of Christianity and the first principles of development: linear time, interiority, structure; 3. The history of education: rearing the elect child; 4. Pascal on the ordering of human time; 5. The normalization of the elect: Locke to Montesquieu; 6. The coining of a developmental theory: Leibniz to Bonnet; 7. Emile: Rousseau's well-ordered developer; 8. Nature versus nurture and cognitive ability testing: historical sketches; Postscript: further targets for historical research.