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Habits of Mind: A Brand New Condillac

Dunham, J.

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Abstract

Is there anything in the mind that was not first in the senses? According to the received view, the French empiricist Étienne Bonnot de Condillac’s (1714–1780) answer to this was a firm “No”. Unlike Locke, who accepted the existence of innate faculties, Condillac rejected the existence of all innate structure and instinctive behaviours. Everything, therefore, is learned. In this article, I argue that from at least the writing of his 1754 Traité des sensations, this reading fails to capture the true nature of his philosophy of mind. I present a genetic reading of Condillac’s philosophy that shows that from the 1750s until his death in 1780, he developed, by engaging closely with the life sciences of his day, an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the mind and perception. This understanding depends on the acceptance of the activity of the mind, innate structure, and a moderate defence of instincts—all characteristics of the mind that he is most commonly read as rejecting. Reading Condillac in this genetic way demonstrates that his philosophy of mind is much more original and powerful than has previously been recognised.

Citation

Dunham, J. (2019). Habits of Mind: A Brand New Condillac. https://doi.org/10.32881/jomp.11

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 13, 2018
Online Publication Date Jan 28, 2019
Publication Date Jan 28, 2019
Deposit Date Nov 13, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of modern philosophy
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 1
Issue 1
Article Number 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.32881/jomp.11

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution + NonCommercial 4.0 License (CC-BY-NC 4.0), which permits unrestricted use and distribution provided the
original author and source are credited and if changes are made, they are indicated. You may not use the material for
commercial purposes without the author’s permission.




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