Difference between revisions of "Etienne Bonnot de Condillac" - New World Encyclopedia

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[[image:Etienne_Bonnot_de_Condillac.jpg|thumb|250px|Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.]]
 
[[image:Etienne_Bonnot_de_Condillac.jpg|thumb|250px|Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.]]
  
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'''Étienne Bonnot de Condillac''' ([[September 30]], [[1715]] – [[August 3]], [[1780]]) was a [[France|French]] [[philosopher]].
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'''Étienne Bonnot de Condillac''' (September 30, 1715 - August 3, 1780) was a Roman Catholic Abbé and a leading [[philosopher]]and psychologist of the French Enlightenment.  He systematized and expanded upon the theories of John Locke, making them popular among French intellectuals, and developed a theory of empirical "sensationism."  He asserted that the content of the human mind is an aggregate of sensations and the mental impressions arising from them, and that there are no innate faculties or ideas.  He illustrated this concept in his best-known work, ''Traité des sensations,'' with the analogy of a statue, organized internally like a human, which has its senses awakened one by one. He suggested that what is called "substance" is nothing more than a collection of sense impressions, that the "ego" is the collection of sense impressions belonging to a particular individual, and that language consist of the words associated with particular groups of sense impressions.  His ideas held sway among French intellectuals for fifty years, and had some influence on the English empiricists who followed John Locke.
  
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==Life==
 
==Life==
  
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He was born at [[Grenoble]] of a legal family, and, like his elder brother, the well-known political writer, [[abbé de Mably]], took holy orders and became abbé de Mureau.
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Étienne Bonnot de Condillac was born on September 30, 1715, at Grenoble, France to a family of lawyers.  Like his elder brother, the well-known political writer, [[Abbé de Mably]], he took holy orders and became Abbé de Mureau. Supported by his benefice (financial support provided by the church), he retreated into solitude and devoted himself almost entirely to study.  During his earlier days in [[Paris]] he came into contact with the circle of [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]]. [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]] had been domestic tutor in the family of Condillac's uncle, M. de Mably, at [[Lyon]], and this apparently led to a long friendship with Condillac. Thanks to his natural caution and reserve, Condillac's relations with unorthodox philosophers did not injure his career.  His first work,  ''Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines'' was published in 1746, followed by ''Traité des systèmes'' (1749), ''Traité des sensations'' (1754), ''Traité des animaux'' (1755). 
  
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In both cases the profession was hardly more than nominal, and Condillac's whole life, with the exception of an interval as tutor at the [[Duchy of Parma|court of Parma]], was devoted to speculation. His works are ''Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines'' (1746), ''Traité des systèmes'' (1749), ''Traité des sensations'' (1754), ''Traité des animaux'' (1755), a comprehensive ''Cours d'études'' (1767-1773) in 13 vols., written for the young [[Duke Ferdinand of Parma]], a grandson of [[Louis XV of France|Louis XV]], ''Le Commerce et le gouvernement, considérés relativement l'un a l'autre'' (1776), and two posthumous works, ''Logique'' (1781) and the unfinished ''Langue des calculs'' (1798).
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In 1755, he was sent by the French court to Parma, Italy, to act as tutor to the Duke Ferdinand of Parma, a grandson of Louis XV, then a child of seven years. He wrote a comprehensive ''Cours d'études'' (1767-1773), in 13 volumes, for his charge. In 1768, on his return from Italy, he was elected to the [[Académie Française]], but attended only one of the meetings, on the day of his reception.  He spent his later years in retirement at Flux, a small property which he had purchased near Beaugency, and died there on August 3, 1780.
  
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In his earlier days in [[Paris]] he came much into contact with the circle of [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]]. A friendship with [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], which lasted in some measure to the end, may have been due in the first instance to the fact that Rousseau had been domestic tutor in the family of Condillac's uncle, M. de Mably, at [[Lyon]]. Thanks to his natural caution and reserve, Condillac's relations with unorthodox philosophers did not injure his career; and he justified abundantly the choice of the French court in sending him to [[Parma]] to educate the orphan duke, then a child of seven years.
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== Thought and Works ==
  
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In [[1768]], on his return from Italy, he was elected to the [[Académie française]], but attended no meeting after his reception. He spent his later years in retirement at Flux, a small property which he had purchased near [[Beaugency]], and died there on August 3, 1780.
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Condillac was important both as a [[psychologist]] and as a philosopher of the French Enlightenment.  His interest in mathematics and logic was reflected in his approach to human psychology.  His first book, the ''Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines'' (An Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge), subtitled “A Supplement to Mr. Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding,” systematically summarized and explored Locke’s theory that human knowledge is deduced from two sources, sensation and reflection, and further advanced through the association of ideas.  The book was widely read, and served to establish and clarify Locke’s theory among French philosophers.  
  
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==Works and legacy==
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His next book, the ''Traité des systèmes,'' was a vigorous criticism of the innate ideas of the [[René Descartes|Cartesians]], [[Nicolas Malebranche|Malebranche]]'s faculty—psychology, [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]]'s [[monad]]ism and preestablished harmony, and, above all, the conception of substance set forth in the first part of the ''Ethics'' of [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]].  Condillac contended that preoccupation with language had led the philosophers of the seventeenth century to erroneous conclusions about the human knowledge and the nature of the mind. 
  
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Condillac is important both as a [[psychologist]] and as having established systematically in France the principles of [[John Locke|Locke]], whom [[Voltaire]] had lately made fashionable. In setting forth his empirical sensationism, Condillac shows many of the best qualities of his age and nation, lucidity, brevity, moderation and an earnest striving after logical method. Unfortunately it must be said of him as of so many of his contemporaries, "''er hat die Theile in seiner Hand, fehlt leider nur det geistiger Band''"; in the analysis of the human mind on which his fame chiefly rests, he has missed out the active and spiritual side of human experience.
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His third and most important work, the ''Traité des sensations'', argued against Locke that sensation alone, and not sensation together with reflection, is the source of human knowledge
  
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His first book, the ''Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines'', keeps close to his English master. He accepts with some indecision Locke's deduction of our knowledge from two sources, sensation and reflection, and uses as his main principle of explanation the association of ideas. His next book, the ''Traité des systèmes'', is a vigorous criticism of those modern systems which are based upon abstract principles or upon unsound hypotheses. His polemic, which is inspired throughout with the spirit of Locke, is directed against the innate ideas of the [[René Descartes|Cartesians]], [[Nicolas Malebranche|Malebranche]]'s faculty—psychology, [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]]'s [[monad]]ism and preestablished harmony, and, above all, against the conception of substance set forth in the first part of the ''Ethics'' of [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]].
 
  
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By far the most important of his works is the ''Traité des sensations'', in which he emancipates himself from the tutelage of Locke and treats psychology in his own characteristic way. He had been led, he tells us, partly by the criticism of a talented lady, Mademoiselle Ferrand, to question Locke's doctrine that the senses give us intuitive knowledge of objects, that the eye, for example, naturally judges shapes, sizes, positions and distances. His discussions with the lady had convinced him that to clear up such questions it was necessary to study our senses separately, to distinguish precisely what ideas we owe to each sense, to observe how the senses are trained, and how one sense aids another. The result, he was confident, would show that all human faculty and knowledge are transformed sensation only, to the exclusion of any other principle, such as reflection.
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=== Works ===
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Condillac’s most influential works were ''Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines'' (1746) , ''Traité des systèmes'' (1749), and ''Traité des sensations'' (1754), in which he attempted to apply scientific empiricism to other fields of knowledge, and its successor,  ''Traité des animaux'' (1755). His ''Cours d'études'' (1767-1773), included some novel suggestions which have been incorporated into modern philosophy of education.  He also published a treatise on economics, ''Le Commerce et le gouvernement, considérés relativement l'un a l'autre'' (1776), and two posthumous works, ''Logique'' (1781) and the unfinished ''Langue des calculs'' (1798).
  
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The plan of the book is that the author imagines a statue organized inwardly like a man, animated by a soul which has never received an idea, into which no sense-impression has ever penetrated. He then unlocks its senses one by one, beginning with smell, as the sense that contributes least to human knowledge. At its first experience of smell, the consciousness of the statue is entirely occupied by it; and this occupancy of consciousness is attention. The statue's smell-experience will produce pleasure or pain; and pleasure and pain will thenceforward be the master-principle which, determining all the operations of its mind, will raise it by degrees to all the knowledge of which it is capable. The next stage is memory, which is the lingering impression of the smellexperience upon the attention: "memory is nothing more than a mode of feeling." From memory springs comparison: the statue experiences the smell, say, of a rose, while remembering that of a carnation; and "comparison is nothing more than giving one's attention to two things simultaneously." And "as soon as the statue has comparison it has judgment." Comparisons and judgments become habitual, are stored in the mind and formed into series, and thus arises the powerful principle of the association of ideas. From comparison of past and present experiences in respect of their pleasure-giving quality arises desire; it is desire that determines the operation of our faculties, stimulates the memory and imagination, and gives rise to the passions. The passiofis, also, are nothing but sensation transformed.
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Condillac's collected works were published in 1798 (23 vols.) and two or three times subsequently; the last edition (1822) has an introductory dissertation by A. F. Théry. The ''Encyclopédie méthodique'' has a very long article on Condillac (Naigeon). Biographical details and criticism of the ''Traité des systèmes'' in J. P. Damiron's ''Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de to philosophie au dixhuitieme siècle,'' tome iii.; a full criticism in V Cousin's ''Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne'', ser. i. tome iii. Consult also F Rethoré, ''Condillac ou l'empirisme et le rationalisme'' (1864); L Dewaule, ''Condillac et la psychologie anglaise contemporaine'' (1891); histories of philosophy.
  
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These indications will suffice to show the general course of the argument in the first section of the ''Traité des sensations''. To show the thoroughness of the treatment it will be enough to quote the headings of the chief remaining chapters: "Of the Ideas of a Man limited to the Sense of Smell," "Of a Man limited to the Sense of Hearing," "Of Smell and Hearing combined," "Of Taste by itself, and of Taste combined with Smell and Hearing," "Of a Man limited to the Sense of Sight."
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== Sensationism ==
  
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In the second section of the treatise Condillac invests his statue with the sense of touch, which first informs it of the existence of external objects. In a very careful and elaborate analysis, he distinguishes the various elements in our tactile experiences-the touching of one's own body, the touching of objects other than one's own body, the experience of movement, the exploration of surfaces by the hands: he traces the growth of the statue's perceptions of extension, distance and shape. The third section deals with the combination of touch with the other senses. The fourth section deals with the desires, activities and ideas of an isolated man who enjoys possession of all the senses; and ends with observations on a "wild boy" who was found living among bears in the forests of [[Lithuania]].
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''Traité des sensations'' (1754), questioned Locke's doctrine that the senses give us intuitive knowledge of objects; that the eye, for example, naturally judges shapes, sizes, positions and distances. Condillac was convinced that it was necessary to study our senses separately, to distinguish precisely what ideas we owe to each sense, to observe how the senses are trained, and how one sense aids another. The result, he was confident, would show that all human faculties and knowledge are transformed sensation only, to the exclusion of any other principle, such as reflection.
  
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The conclusion of the whole work is that in the natural order of things everything has its source in sensation, and yet that this source is not equally abundant in all men; men differ greatly in the degree of vividness with which they feel; and, finally, that man is nothing but what he has acquired; all innate faculties and ideas are to be swept away. The last dictum suggests the difference that has been made to this manner of psychologizing by modern theories of evolution and heredity.
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Condillac used the analogy of a statue organized inwardly like a man, animated by a soul which has never received an idea, into which no sense-impression has ever penetrated. He then unlocked its senses one by one, beginning with smell, as the sense that contributes least to human knowledge. At its first experience of smell, the consciousness of the statue is entirely occupied by it; and this occupancy of consciousness is attention. The statue's smell-experience will produce pleasure or pain; and pleasure and pain will thenceforward be the master-principle which, determining all the operations of the statue’s mind, will raise it by degrees to all the knowledge of which it is capable. The next stage of cognition is memory, which is the lingering impression of the smell experience upon the attention, after the object exuding the smell has been removed: "memory is nothing more than a mode of feeling." From memory springs comparison, which "is nothing more than giving one's attention to two things simultaneously;"  the statue experiences the smell, for example, of a rose, while remembering that of a carnation.  “As soon as the statue has comparison it has judgment." Comparisons and judgments become habitual, are stored in the mind and organized into series; the powerful principle of the association of ideas. A comparison of the pleasure-giving qualities of past and present experiences gives rise to desire; desire determines the operation of our faculties, stimulates the memory and imagination, and gives rise to the passions. The passions, also, are nothing but sensation transformed.  Will is desire made stronger and more permanent through the hope that it can be satisfied.
  
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Condillac's work on politics and history, contained, for the most part, in his ''Cours d'études'', offers few features of interest, except so far as it illustrates his close affinity to English thought: he had not the warmth and imagination to make a good historian. In [[logic]], on which he wrote extensively, he is far less successful than in psychology. He enlarges with much iteration, but with few con~rete examples, upon the supremacy of the analytic method; argues that reasoning consists in the substitution of one proposition for another which is identical with it; and lays it down that science is the same thing as a well-constructed language, a proposition which in his Langue des calculs he tries to prove by the example of arithmetic. His logic has in fact the good and bad points that we might expect to find in a sensationist who knows no science but mathematics. He rejects the medieval apparatus of the syllogism; but is precluded by his standpoint from understanding the active, spiritual character of thought; nor had he that interest in natural science and appreciation of inductive reasoning which form the chief merit of [[John Stuart Mill|JS Mill]]. It is obvious enough that Condillac's anti-spiritual psychology, with its explanation of personality as an aggregate of sensations, leads straight to atheism and determinism. There is, however, no reason to question the sincerity with which he repudiates both these consequences. What he says upon religion is always in harmony with his profession; and he vindicated the freedom of the will in a dissertation that has very little in common with the ''Traité des sensations'' to which it is appended. The common reproach of [[materialism]] should certainly not be made against him. He always asserts the substantive reality of the soul; and in the opening words of his ''Essai'', "Whether we rise to heaven, or descend to the abyss, we never get outside ourselves—it is always our own thoughts that we perceive," we have the subjectivist principle that forms the starting-point of [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]].
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will is nothing but absolute desire, a desire made more energetic and more permanent through hope. What we call substance is simply the collection of sensations. What we call the ego is simply the collection of our sensations.
  
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As was fitting to a disciple of Locke, Condillac's ideas have had most importance in their effect upon English thought. In matters connected with the association of ideas, the supremacy of pleasure and pain, and the general explanation of all mental contents as sensations or transformed sensations, his influence can be traced upon the Mills and upon [[Alexander Bain|Bain]] and [[Herbert Spencer]]. And, apart from any definite propositions, Condillac did a notable work in the direction of making psychology a science; it is a great step from the desultory, genial observation of Locke to the rigorous analysis of Condillac, short-sighted and defective as that analysis may seem to us in the light of fuller knowledge.
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The rest of the first section follows a similar line of analysis using the other senses:  "Of the Ideas of a Man limited to the Sense of Smell," "Of a Man limited to the Sense of Hearing," "Of Smell and Hearing combined," "Of Taste by itself, and of Taste combined with Smell and Hearing," "Of a Man limited to the Sense of Sight."
  
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His method, however, of imaginative reconstruction was by no means suited to English ways of thinking. In spite of his protests against abstraction, hypothesis and synthesis, his allegory of the statue is in the highest degree abstract, hypothetical and synthetic. [[James Mill]], who stood more by the study of concrete realities, put Condillac into the hands of his youthful son with the warning that here was an example of what to avoid in the method of psychology. A modern historian has compared<ref>Hobbs, Catherine, ''Rhetoric on the Margin of Modernity, Vico, [[Étienne Bonnot de Condillac|Condillac]], [[Monboddo]]'', Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois (1992)</ref> Condillac with [[Scottish Enlightment]] [[philosopher]] and [[History of evolution|pre-evolutionary thinker]] [[Lord Monboddo]], who had a similar fascination with abstraction and ideas. In France Condillac's doctrine, so congenial to the tone of [[18th century]] philosophism, reigned in the schools for over fifty years, challenged only by a few who, like [[Maine de Biran]], saw that it gave no sufficient account of volitional experience. Early in the [[19th century]], the romantic awakening of [[Germany]] had spread to France, and sensationism was displaced by the eclectic spiritualism of [[Victor Cousin]].
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In the second section of the treatise Condillac invests his statue with the sense of touch, which informs it of the existence of external objects. In a very careful and elaborate analysis, he distinguishes the various elements in our tactile experiences; the touching of one's own body, the touching of objects other than one's own body, the experience of movement, the exploration of surfaces by the hands. He traces the growth of the statue's perceptions of extension, distance and shape. The third section deals with the combination of touch with the other senses. The fourth section deals with the desires, activities and ideas of an isolated man who enjoys possession of all the senses; and ends with observations on a "wild boy" who was found living among bears in the forests of [[Lithuania]].
  
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Condillac's collected works were published in 1798 (23 vols.) and two or three times subsequently; the last edition (1822) has an introductory dissertation by [[A. F. Théry]]. The ''Encyclopédie méthodique'' has a very long article on Condillac (Naigeon). Biographical details and criticism of the ''Traité des systèmes'' in [[J. P. Damiron]]'s ''Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de to philosophie au dixhuitieme siècle'', tome iii.; a full criticism in V Cousin's ''Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne'', ser. i. tome iii. Consult also F Rethoré, ''Condillac ou l'empirisme et le rationalisme'' (1864); L Dewaule, ''Condillac et la psychologie anglaise contemporaine'' (1891); histories of philosophy.
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The conclusion of the work is that, in the natural order of things, substance is noting more than a collection of sensations. The “ego” is a collection of the sensations experienced by a particular human being. Sensation is not experienced to an equal degree equal in all men; and the mind of man is nothing but what he has acquired through his experience of sensations, with no innate faculties and ideas.  Though this concept of  the human mind as an aggregate of sensations appears deterministic, Condillac rejected determinism and appended an essay supporting freedom of the will to ''Traité des sensations.''
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<blockquote>
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"Whether we rise to heaven, or descend to the abyss, we never get outside ourselves—it is always our own thoughts that we perceive." ''Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines'' </blockquote>
  
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==Line note references==
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In France, Condillac's doctrine of sensationism dominated in the schools for over fifty years, challenged only by a few who, like [[Maine de Biran]], declared that it gave no sufficient account of volitional experience in seeking out experiences of sensation.  Early in the [[19th century]], the romantic awakening of [[Germany]] had spread to France, and sensationism was displaced by the eclectic spiritualism of [[Victor Cousin]].  Some historians believe that Condillac’s concept of sensationism influenced the psychology, ethics, and sociology of the English school represented by John Stuart Mill, Alexander Bain, and Herbert Spencer; others claim that these men took their ideas directly from Locke.  The more pragmatic English philosophers criticized the allegory of the statue as being too abstract, hypothetical and synthetic; James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, put Condillac’s book into the hands of his youthful son with the warning that it was an example of what to avoid in the method of psychology.
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<div class="references-small">
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=== Education ===
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<references />
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Condillac based his theory of education on the idea that a developing child must repeat the various stages through which his culture has passed, and idea which, with modifications, is still held by some educators today.  He also suggested the principle that the process of education should correspond to the natural development of a child.  History and religion formed the base of his curriculum, and he insisted that it was necessary to establish a connection among the various fields of study. He emphasized training the student to make sound judgments rather than burdening his memory.  His system has been criticized for placing philosophy and psychology ahead of the acquisition of basic skills.  The "Cours d'études" (1769-1773)  which he created for the Duke of Parma, includes sections on "Grammaire", "L'Art d'écrire", "L'Art de raisonner", "L'Art de penser", and "L'histoire générale des hommes et des empires."
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</div>
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=== Politics, Economics and Logic ===
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Condillac's work on politics and history, contained, for the most part, in his ''Cours d'études'', illustrates his close affinity to English thought.  In [[logic]], on which he wrote extensively, he enlarges, with few concrete examples, upon the supremacy of the analytic method and argues that reasoning consists in the substitution of one proposition for another which is identical with it  He suggests that science is the same thing as a well-constructed language, a proposition which he tries to prove, using the example of arithmetic, in his Langue des calculs  (published unfinished after his death). 
  
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==Main source==
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*{{1911}}
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== References ==
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* Condillac; Phillip, Franklin (Editor). Philosophical Writings of Etienne Bonnot, Abbe De Condillac, Erlbaum, 1987
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Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de; Aarsleff, Hans. Condillac: Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy). Cambridge University Press, 2001
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*Derrida, Jacques; tr. by John P. Leavey. The Archeology of the Frivolous: Reading Condillac. University of Nebraska Press, 1987
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==

Revision as of 16:44, 28 September 2006

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac.

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (September 30, 1715 - August 3, 1780) was a Roman Catholic Abbé and a leading philosopherand psychologist of the French Enlightenment. He systematized and expanded upon the theories of John Locke, making them popular among French intellectuals, and developed a theory of empirical "sensationism." He asserted that the content of the human mind is an aggregate of sensations and the mental impressions arising from them, and that there are no innate faculties or ideas. He illustrated this concept in his best-known work, Traité des sensations, with the analogy of a statue, organized internally like a human, which has its senses awakened one by one. He suggested that what is called "substance" is nothing more than a collection of sense impressions, that the "ego" is the collection of sense impressions belonging to a particular individual, and that language consist of the words associated with particular groups of sense impressions. His ideas held sway among French intellectuals for fifty years, and had some influence on the English empiricists who followed John Locke.


Life

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac was born on September 30, 1715, at Grenoble, France to a family of lawyers. Like his elder brother, the well-known political writer, Abbé de Mably, he took holy orders and became Abbé de Mureau. Supported by his benefice (financial support provided by the church), he retreated into solitude and devoted himself almost entirely to study. During his earlier days in Paris he came into contact with the circle of Diderot. Rousseau had been domestic tutor in the family of Condillac's uncle, M. de Mably, at Lyon, and this apparently led to a long friendship with Condillac. Thanks to his natural caution and reserve, Condillac's relations with unorthodox philosophers did not injure his career. His first work, Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines was published in 1746, followed by Traité des systèmes (1749), Traité des sensations (1754), Traité des animaux (1755).

In 1755, he was sent by the French court to Parma, Italy, to act as tutor to the Duke Ferdinand of Parma, a grandson of Louis XV, then a child of seven years. He wrote a comprehensive Cours d'études (1767-1773), in 13 volumes, for his charge. In 1768, on his return from Italy, he was elected to the Académie Française, but attended only one of the meetings, on the day of his reception. He spent his later years in retirement at Flux, a small property which he had purchased near Beaugency, and died there on August 3, 1780.

Thought and Works

Condillac was important both as a psychologist and as a philosopher of the French Enlightenment. His interest in mathematics and logic was reflected in his approach to human psychology. His first book, the Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (An Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge), subtitled “A Supplement to Mr. Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding,” systematically summarized and explored Locke’s theory that human knowledge is deduced from two sources, sensation and reflection, and further advanced through the association of ideas. The book was widely read, and served to establish and clarify Locke’s theory among French philosophers.

His next book, the Traité des systèmes, was a vigorous criticism of the innate ideas of the Cartesians, Malebranche's faculty—psychology, Leibniz's monadism and preestablished harmony, and, above all, the conception of substance set forth in the first part of the Ethics of Spinoza. Condillac contended that preoccupation with language had led the philosophers of the seventeenth century to erroneous conclusions about the human knowledge and the nature of the mind.

His third and most important work, the Traité des sensations, argued against Locke that sensation alone, and not sensation together with reflection, is the source of human knowledge


Works

Condillac’s most influential works were Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (1746) , Traité des systèmes (1749), and Traité des sensations (1754), in which he attempted to apply scientific empiricism to other fields of knowledge, and its successor, Traité des animaux (1755). His Cours d'études (1767-1773), included some novel suggestions which have been incorporated into modern philosophy of education. He also published a treatise on economics, Le Commerce et le gouvernement, considérés relativement l'un a l'autre (1776), and two posthumous works, Logique (1781) and the unfinished Langue des calculs (1798).

Condillac's collected works were published in 1798 (23 vols.) and two or three times subsequently; the last edition (1822) has an introductory dissertation by A. F. Théry. The Encyclopédie méthodique has a very long article on Condillac (Naigeon). Biographical details and criticism of the Traité des systèmes in J. P. Damiron's Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de to philosophie au dixhuitieme siècle, tome iii.; a full criticism in V Cousin's Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne, ser. i. tome iii. Consult also F Rethoré, Condillac ou l'empirisme et le rationalisme (1864); L Dewaule, Condillac et la psychologie anglaise contemporaine (1891); histories of philosophy.


Sensationism

Traité des sensations (1754), questioned Locke's doctrine that the senses give us intuitive knowledge of objects; that the eye, for example, naturally judges shapes, sizes, positions and distances. Condillac was convinced that it was necessary to study our senses separately, to distinguish precisely what ideas we owe to each sense, to observe how the senses are trained, and how one sense aids another. The result, he was confident, would show that all human faculties and knowledge are transformed sensation only, to the exclusion of any other principle, such as reflection.

Condillac used the analogy of a statue organized inwardly like a man, animated by a soul which has never received an idea, into which no sense-impression has ever penetrated. He then unlocked its senses one by one, beginning with smell, as the sense that contributes least to human knowledge. At its first experience of smell, the consciousness of the statue is entirely occupied by it; and this occupancy of consciousness is attention. The statue's smell-experience will produce pleasure or pain; and pleasure and pain will thenceforward be the master-principle which, determining all the operations of the statue’s mind, will raise it by degrees to all the knowledge of which it is capable. The next stage of cognition is memory, which is the lingering impression of the smell experience upon the attention, after the object exuding the smell has been removed: "memory is nothing more than a mode of feeling." From memory springs comparison, which "is nothing more than giving one's attention to two things simultaneously;" the statue experiences the smell, for example, of a rose, while remembering that of a carnation. “As soon as the statue has comparison it has judgment." Comparisons and judgments become habitual, are stored in the mind and organized into series; the powerful principle of the association of ideas. A comparison of the pleasure-giving qualities of past and present experiences gives rise to desire; desire determines the operation of our faculties, stimulates the memory and imagination, and gives rise to the passions. The passions, also, are nothing but sensation transformed. Will is desire made stronger and more permanent through the hope that it can be satisfied.

will is nothing but absolute desire, a desire made more energetic and more permanent through hope. What we call substance is simply the collection of sensations. What we call the ego is simply the collection of our sensations.

The rest of the first section follows a similar line of analysis using the other senses: "Of the Ideas of a Man limited to the Sense of Smell," "Of a Man limited to the Sense of Hearing," "Of Smell and Hearing combined," "Of Taste by itself, and of Taste combined with Smell and Hearing," "Of a Man limited to the Sense of Sight."

In the second section of the treatise Condillac invests his statue with the sense of touch, which informs it of the existence of external objects. In a very careful and elaborate analysis, he distinguishes the various elements in our tactile experiences; the touching of one's own body, the touching of objects other than one's own body, the experience of movement, the exploration of surfaces by the hands. He traces the growth of the statue's perceptions of extension, distance and shape. The third section deals with the combination of touch with the other senses. The fourth section deals with the desires, activities and ideas of an isolated man who enjoys possession of all the senses; and ends with observations on a "wild boy" who was found living among bears in the forests of Lithuania.

The conclusion of the work is that, in the natural order of things, substance is noting more than a collection of sensations. The “ego” is a collection of the sensations experienced by a particular human being. Sensation is not experienced to an equal degree equal in all men; and the mind of man is nothing but what he has acquired through his experience of sensations, with no innate faculties and ideas. Though this concept of the human mind as an aggregate of sensations appears deterministic, Condillac rejected determinism and appended an essay supporting freedom of the will to Traité des sensations.

"Whether we rise to heaven, or descend to the abyss, we never get outside ourselves—it is always our own thoughts that we perceive." Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines

In France, Condillac's doctrine of sensationism dominated in the schools for over fifty years, challenged only by a few who, like Maine de Biran, declared that it gave no sufficient account of volitional experience in seeking out experiences of sensation. Early in the 19th century, the romantic awakening of Germany had spread to France, and sensationism was displaced by the eclectic spiritualism of Victor Cousin. Some historians believe that Condillac’s concept of sensationism influenced the psychology, ethics, and sociology of the English school represented by John Stuart Mill, Alexander Bain, and Herbert Spencer; others claim that these men took their ideas directly from Locke. The more pragmatic English philosophers criticized the allegory of the statue as being too abstract, hypothetical and synthetic; James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, put Condillac’s book into the hands of his youthful son with the warning that it was an example of what to avoid in the method of psychology.

Education

Condillac based his theory of education on the idea that a developing child must repeat the various stages through which his culture has passed, and idea which, with modifications, is still held by some educators today. He also suggested the principle that the process of education should correspond to the natural development of a child. History and religion formed the base of his curriculum, and he insisted that it was necessary to establish a connection among the various fields of study. He emphasized training the student to make sound judgments rather than burdening his memory. His system has been criticized for placing philosophy and psychology ahead of the acquisition of basic skills. The "Cours d'études" (1769-1773) which he created for the Duke of Parma, includes sections on "Grammaire", "L'Art d'écrire", "L'Art de raisonner", "L'Art de penser", and "L'histoire générale des hommes et des empires."

Politics, Economics and Logic

Condillac's work on politics and history, contained, for the most part, in his Cours d'études, illustrates his close affinity to English thought. In logic, on which he wrote extensively, he enlarges, with few concrete examples, upon the supremacy of the analytic method and argues that reasoning consists in the substitution of one proposition for another which is identical with it He suggests that science is the same thing as a well-constructed language, a proposition which he tries to prove, using the example of arithmetic, in his Langue des calculs (published unfinished after his death).


References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Condillac; Phillip, Franklin (Editor). Philosophical Writings of Etienne Bonnot, Abbe De Condillac, Erlbaum, 1987

Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de; Aarsleff, Hans. Condillac: Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy). Cambridge University Press, 2001

  • Derrida, Jacques; tr. by John P. Leavey. The Archeology of the Frivolous: Reading Condillac. University of Nebraska Press, 1987

External links

Preceded by:
Pierre-Joseph Thoulier d'Olivet 		Seat 31
Académie française
1768–1780 		Succeeded by:
Louis-Élizabeth de La Vergne de Tressan

de:Étienne Bonnot de Condillac es:Étienne Bonnot de Condillac fr:Étienne Bonnot de Condillac hu:Étienne Bonnot de Condillac it:Étienne Bonnot de Condillac no:Étienne Bonnot de Condillac pl:Étienne de Condillac ru:Кондильяк, Этьен Бонно де sk:Etienne Bonnot de Condillac sv:Etienne Bonnot de Condillac

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