Etienne Bonnot de Condillac 1714 – 1780
Etienne Bonnot, abbe de Condillac, was a French Enlightenment philosopher and the principal continental developer of empiricism after Locke. His Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge and Treatise on Sensations developed a thoroughgoing sensationalism in which all human cognition is constructed by the transformation of sense impressions through attention, comparison, and language. The famous statue thought experiment of the Treatise traces the gradual emergence of mental life as one sense after another is awakened. His Logic and Language of Calculation extended the program to a philosophy of language and mathematics.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Enlightenment
Selected quotes
-
Attributed to Etienne Bonnot de Condillac:
“All knowledge is transformed sensation.”
-
Attributed to Etienne Bonnot de Condillac:
“Language is the instrument of analysis.”
-
Attributed to Etienne Bonnot de Condillac:
“The whole of metaphysics rests on the analysis of ideas.”
-
Attributed to Etienne Bonnot de Condillac:
“Sensations alone make us what we are.”
-
Attributed to Etienne Bonnot de Condillac:
“A well-made science is nothing but a well-made language.”