Fetz, Reto Luzius, Carolyn Wolf Spanier, trans. and John M. Sweeney, trans.  "On the Formation of Ontological Concepts: The Relationship Between the Theories of Whitehead and Piaget."  Process Studies 17, no. 4 (Winter 1988): 262-72.

Abstract

The present paper is an attempt to investigate connections between Whitehead's work on ontological theory and Piaget's genetic theory of cognition.  Although Whitehead's philosophy of organism is an explicitly metaphysical theory and Piaget's genetic theory of cognition is markedly a naturalistic theory, the first part of this paper contends that an extensive relationship exists between the two theories.  The second part addresses, in a more limited sense, another issue, namely, the emergence of a "genetic ontology" from a "genetic epistemology."  What a genetic ontology can contribute to questions posed by Whitehead is illustrated in the third part regarding the complex problem of the concept of "organism" "versus" the notion of "thing."  [Abstract from The Philosopher's Index]