étienne Bonnot de Condillac

From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008 | Copyright information

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac , 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).

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

"étienne Bonnot de Condillac." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"étienne Bonnot de Condillac." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (December 1, 2008). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Condilla.html

"étienne Bonnot de Condillac." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved December 01, 2008 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Condilla.html

Learn more about citation styles

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

Forum de l'essai sur l'art.
Magazine article from: Parachute: Contemporary Art Magazine; 4/1/1999; ; 700+ words ; ...visees de ce seul genre qu'est l'<<essai sur l'art>> n'est pas chose courante...recente parution (2) . Le forum de l'essai sur l'art a propose plusieurs questions ou...des seances: <<Comment definir l'essai sur l'art?, <<L'essai sur l'art: ... Read more
Ouvrages theoriques_essays.
Magazine article from: Parachute: Contemporary Art Magazine; 10/1/2003; 337 words ; ...130 p., ill. n. et b. Michel Guerin, Nihilisme et modernite. Essai sur la sensibilite des epoques modernes de Diderot a Duchamp, Nimes...Press, 2003, 214 pp. Luc Richir, Dieu, le corps, le volume. Essai sur la sculpture, Bruxelles, La part de l'oeil, 2003, 296 p., ill... Read more
Fictions de l'ipseite: essai sur l'invention narrative de soi (Beckett, Hesse, Kafka, Musil, Proust, Woolf).(Book Review)
Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 1/1/2004; ; 446 words ; Fictions de l'ipseite: essai sur l'invention narrative de soi (Beckett, Hesse, Kafka, Musil, Proust, Woolf). By LAURENT MATTIUSSI. (Histoire des idees et critique... Read more
Didier, Beatrice and Emanuelle Tabet, eds. Chateaubriand avant le Genie du Christianisme: Actes du Colloque ENS Ulm.(Book review)
Magazine article from: Nineteenth-Century French Studies; 9/22/2007; ; 668 words ; ...targets aspects of Chateaubriand's writing, especially in his Essai sur les Revolutions and rounds out the earlier years with subsequent...particularly Byron. Laura Brignoli examines the imagery of the Essai sur les Revolutions to de fine patterns of recurring motifs that... Read more
[Marcel Mauss: a centenary tribute]
Magazine article from: Anthropologica; 1/1/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...Silber) are devoted to the evaluation of the arguments of the Essai sur le don. In the first half of his paper, Jenkins outlines Derrida...be a pure gift, then no such phenomenon was described in the Essai sur le don (pp. 84-87). Jenkins also gives an interesting explanation... Read more
Lamiel: Fille du feu: Essai sur Stendhal et l'energie.(Review)
Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 7/1/1999; ; 658 words ; Lamiel: Fille du Feu: Essai sur Stendhal et l'energie. By C. W. THOMPSON. Paris and Montreal: L'Harmattan. 1997. 158 pp. 90 F. This study represents a major contribution... Read more
Au revoir to American empire.(Apres l'Empire: Essai sur la decomposition du systeme americain)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Foreign Policy; 9/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; Apres l'Empire: Essai sur la decomposition du systeme americain (After the Empire: An Essay...Emmanuel Todd, a French historian and sociologist in Apres l'Empire: Essai sur Ia decomposition du systeme americain (After the Empire: An Essay... Read more
Tremblay, Roseline. L'Ecrivain imaginaire: Essai sur le roman quebecois, 1960-1995.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Quebec Studies; 3/22/2004; ; 700+ words ; TREMBLAY, ROSELINE. L'Ecrivain imaginaire: Essai sur le roman quebecois, 1960-1995. Montreal: Hurtubise, 2004. Pp. 600 In this comprehensive study, Roseline Tremblay takes into account... Read more
1650-1850; ideas, aesthetics, and inquiries in the early modern era; v.11.(book)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 5/1/2006; 171 words ; ...madness in 18th-century England; the forgeries of George Psalmanazar as performance art; the theory of imitation in Boullee's Essai sur l'Art; remembrances of nature in Winckelmann, Erdmannsdorff, Chodowiecki and Goethe; self-image in Goethe's Italian Journey... Read more
(book reviews)
Magazine article from: World Literature Today; 6/22/1994; ; 557 words ; ...recit--or parable, if you like--which first appeared in 1981. In a foreword he cites Julia Kristeva's Pouvoirs de l'horreur: Essai sur l'abjection, which reflects his own intentions. Abjection confronts us a ces etats fragiles ou l'homme erre dans les territoires... Read more

Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses

Joseph Marie de Gérando
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition ...Political Sciences from 1832, he was made a peer in 1837. A major philanthropist, he did much for the education of the working classes and of deaf-mutes. His philosophical writings are partly based on the system of Étienne Bonnot de Condillac. Read more

For Students and teachers!

HighBeam Encyclopedia provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including:

Encyclopedia.com provides students and teachers facts, information, and biographies from verified, citable sources, including: