ENGLISH

Condillac: Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge

By Etienne Bonnot de Condillac , Hans Aarsleff,

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2001
ISBN
0521585767, 9780521585767, 0521584671, 9780521584678, 9780511016363
LCC
B1983.E82 E5 2001
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
867 kB (888009 bytes)
Series
Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy
Pages
225\274
Topic
History
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

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. His work influenced many later philosophers, and also anticipated Wittgenstein's view of language and its relation to mind and thought.

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