Condillac: language, thought, and morality in the man and animal debate.

From: French Forum | Date: January 1, 2003| Author: Coski, R. Christopher | Copyright information

By the mid-eighteenth century, the question of man and animal had been in the spotlight of metaphysics in France since Descartes had re-opened the topic a hundred years before. At that time, the issue served to reinforce the Cartesian doctrine of dualism. Dualism held that man was comprised of two separate and distinct substances, body and soul. Generally, philosophical consensus, following Descartes, held that animals were machines or automata. Animals were bodies without souls, w...

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