Condillac: Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge - Couverture souple

Livre 30 sur 77: Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy

Condillac, Hans

 
9780521585767: Condillac: Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge

Synopsis

Condillac's Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge, first published in French in 1746 and offered here in a new translation, represented in its time a radical departure from the dominant conception of the mind as a reservoir of innately given ideas. Descartes had held that knowledge must rest on ideas; Condillac turned this upside down by arguing that speech and words are the origin of mental life and knowledge. He argued, further, that language has its origin in human interaction and in our natural capacity to react spontaneously and instinctively to the expression of emotions and states of mind in others. The importance of this pointedly anti-Cartesian view, and its relevance to both aesthetics and epistemology, were quickly understood, and Condillac's work influenced many later philosophers including Herder, Rousseau, and Adam Smith. His conception also anticipated Wittgenstein's view of language, its usage, and its relation to mind and thought.

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À propos de l?auteur

Hans Aarsleff is Professor of English, Emeritus, Princeton University.

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Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780521584678: Condillac: Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  0521584671 ISBN 13 :  9780521584678
Editeur : Cambridge University Press, 2001
Couverture rigide