Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de

Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de (ātyĕn` bônō` də kôNdēyäk`), 1715–80, French philosopher who developed the theory of sensationalism (i.e., that all knowledge comes from the senses and that there are no innate ideas). He took holy orders, and in 1768 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. His major works were Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (1746) and Traité des sensations (1754). In these he tried to simplify Locke's theory of knowledge by arguing that all conscious experience is simply the result of passive sensations. In spite of this reduction of consciousness to the passive reception of sensation he nevertheless retained the Cartesian dualism of soul and body. He thus attempted to harmonize his deterministic psychology with his religious profession.

Bibliography

See I. F. Knight, The Geometric Spirit (1968).

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Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de

(born Sept. 30, 1715, Grenoble, France—died Aug. 2/3, 1780, Flux) French philosopher, psychologist, and economist. He was ordained a priest in 1740. In his Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge (1746), he systematically discussed the empiricism of John Locke. In Treatise on Sensations (1754), he questioned Locke's doctrine that intuitive knowledge is available directly through the senses. In his works Logic (1780) and The Language of Calculation (1798), he emphasized the importance of language in logical reasoning and stressed the need for a scientifically designed language. His economic views, presented in Commerce and Government (1776), were based on the notion that value depends on utility rather than labour. The need for something useful, he argued, gives rise to value, while prices result from the exchange of valued items.