Condillac, inventeur d'un nouveau matérialisme

Abstract

Condillac as the inventor of a new materialism. The originality of Condillac's materialism does not lie in his ontology but in his theory of knowledge. The development of modern cognitivism enables us to judge more favourably its radically new elements, namely the rejection of faculties in favour of self-organisation and the explanation of intellectual performance by stacking up acquired systems of information processing. The role of language as action (affirming consists in pronouncing a statement) allows us to understand how the most abstract cognitive activity depends on the human being's corporeal participation in the world.

Condillac on being human: Language and reflection reconsidered

“…2, p. 398). Condillac thus suggests that some form of analysis—which he typically takes to make use of artificial signs (Auroux, 1992; Bertrand, 2002b; Schwartz, 1999)—is part and parcel of organising sensations into ideas. See Bertrand (2016), for a discussion of the changes through which Condillac's theory of the language of action went after the completion of the Essay .…”

“…All that has been claimed is that for Condillac bodily structures are constitutive of mental structures, so that having a species‐specific bodily set‐up translates into having a species‐specific mental constitution. See Auroux (1992), for an account that also stresses the importance of the body, but at the same time embraces the claim that the Condillaquian mind lacks any structuring principles before experience enables it to form them.…”

Habits of Mind A Brand New Condillac

“…See Wright 2009: 54 and2011. 11 For excellent discussions of the Essai, see Auroux 1992;Charrak 2003;Pariente 1999;and Pécharman 1999; as well as the excellent recent edition of EO edited and annotated by Pécherman and Pariente.…”