Sensationalism

John Locke , the precursor of sensationalism.

The sensationalism is a philosophical and, as a derivative of the more general theory of empiricism , one of the main theories of knowledge in the eighteenth ^century.

The term itself has been subsequently proposed in 1804 by Joseph Marie Baron Gerando (1772-1842), in the second edition of his comparative history of philosophical systems on the principles of knowledge. ^Origins

The sensationalism is a doctrine strongly influenced by empiricism , including the Essay on Human Understanding (1690) of John Locke , who asserts that sensations are the source of all knowledge. As empiricism, sensationalism has grown notably in opposition to rationalism Cartesian (the notion of innate ideas), but also in opposition to Malebranche and Leibniz.

Major representatives

The most influential representative of sensationalism is Condillac who proposed a complete and rigorous formulation of sensuality in his Treatise on sensations of 1754. Sensationalism was notably championed during the second half of the ^eighteenth century by materialist philosophers, for example by Helvetius in his The Spirit of 1758.

A theory of knowledge

Condillac , representative of sensationalism.

Sensationalism goes beyond Locke's empiricism: he not only says that there are no innate ideas, but there is no innate mental capacity. For sensuality, feeling and knowledge are co-extensive, and all knowledge, all things considered, any decision, any act of imagination, is, ultimately, a sensation stored, modified, combined or compared with any other sensations. Helvetius and says he "believe, feel it." The sensations are defined as "impressions that we get excited by the opportunity of external objects."

Condillac explains and develops his theory of sensation and knowledge through the famous thought experiment of the statue in succession with the five senses, and acquiring a function of the sensations it receives more and more ideas and more great powers of understanding.

The issues addressed relate to the sensuality including relations between sensations, ideas, judgments and language.

Posterity

Sensualism provide the starting point for discussions of ideologues (eg Destutt de Tracy ), the late eighteenth ^century and the first third of the nineteenth ^century. It was a common term and a theory until the late nineteenth ^century, when it fell into disuse. The sensationalism of Condillac but still influenced the educational theories of Maria Montessori. Condillac is in any case one of the first to propose a cognitive psychology and heightened developmental avant la lettre.

This doctrine was condemned by Pope Pius X in his encyclical Pascendi. He believes that sensuality is a form of immanence , that is to say it comes from the agnosticism of Kant and Spinoza.

References

Texts

• Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, Trait des sensations, 1754.
• Helvetius, De l'esprit, 1758.
• Article "Sensations," Encyclopedia of Arts and Trades , Volume XV.

Sources

• Sylvain Auroux, "sensationalism", in: European Enlightenment Dictionary, edited by Michel Delon , Paris: PUF, 1997 990-2.
• Article "Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, in: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, [1] , 2002, revised 2007.

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• Portal Enlightenment

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