The Constructivism is the name of several trends have emerged in the art, the psychology, the philosophy, the pedagogy and social sciences in general.
In the artistic field, constructivism is an avant-garde movement that is interested in the way in which the plans are organized and in the expression of the volume using those materials typical of the industry.
The movement was born in Russia around 1914 and grew stronger after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Abstract cubism is closely related to this artistic movement that had many and different followers all over the world, although especially in Russia and the Netherlands. Among all those we should highlight, for example, the figure of Theo van Doesburg who was the creator of the Abstraction-Création group and who has various works that can be admired today in the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
In the same way, one could also cite among the main artists of constructivism Joaquín Torres García, who is considered the best and most outstanding artist in Uruguay of the entire 20th century. The museum that bears his name and which is located in Montevideo is one of the best places to learn about his work.
In psychology, constructivism is based on the postulates of Jean Piaget. This psychologist pointed out that the development of intelligence skills is driven by the person himself through his interactions with the environment.
In addition to this aforementioned author, it is also necessary to underline the relevant role played by others within this branch of constructivism such as Lev Vygotsky. In his case, the main idea that emanates from his theories and approaches is that the human being and specifically his development can only be explained from the point of view of social interaction.
For philosophy and epistemology, constructivism (also called epistemological constructivism) is a current that began to develop in the middle of the 20th century. According to this trend, reality is a construction created by the one who observes it.
Edgar Morin, Humberto Maturana, Gregory Bateson, Ernst von Glasersfeld or Paul Watzlawick are some of the philosophers who also left their palpable mark within constructivism, the current of thought that revolutionized the last century.
The latter, for example, has gone down in history as the creator of the Watzlawick Axioms, which are five: it is impossible not to communicate, communication is metacommunication, a relationship depends on communicational sequences, human communication can be analog or digital, and communication exchanges are complementary or symmetrical.
The pedagogy also known as constructivism to the current claims that knowledge of all things arises from intellectual activity of the subject, who reaches its development as the interaction that engages with their environment.
Finally, we can mention that constructivism in mathematics requires, to prove the existence of a mathematical concept, that it can be “constructed”. The opposite trend is known as mathematical Platonism and is based on the fact that mathematical objects are timeless and abstract realities, but not mental creations of people who are dedicated to the task of mathematics.