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Étienne Bonnot de Condillac 1715–1780 - France

As one of the Encyclopedists, Condillac was the foremost French popularizer of the empiricist philosophy of Locke.

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.

Encyclopedia Entries

Wikipedia Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de

Free Online Dictionary of Philosophy Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de

Encyclopedia Britannica Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de

Columbia Encyclopedia Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de

Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) Condillac, Ettiene Bonnot de

Questions of 

no innate ideas

Reading

Logique (Logic) (1741), 

Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge) (1746), 

Traité des systèmes (Treatise on Systems) (1749), 

Traité des sensations (Treatise on Sense Perception) (1754), 

Traité des animaux (Treatise on Animals) (1755), 

Langue des calculs (The Language of Numbers) (1777). 

Writing available on the net

Commentaries

Etienne de Condillac PhilosophyPages.com Garth Kemerling

Philosophical Writings of Etienne Bonnot, Abbe De Condillac, ed. by Franklin Phillip (Erlbaum, 1987)

Jacques Derrida, The Archeology of the Frivolous: Reading Condillac, tr. by John P. Leavey (Nebraska, 1987)

Quotations