On Condillac'S Theory Of Epistemology

Condillac is a great French thinker, philosopher and educator in the eighteenth century. He has propagated Locke's materialism empiricism in France and criticized the metaphysics of the 17th century. He has had a positive effect on the formation and development of materialism in France and later development of cognitive science. In epistemology, Condillac upholds the line of empiricism and sensualist after Locke, he opposes the rationalism of Descartes and other persons of knowledge systems, especially opposes their metaphysical ideas. On this basis, Condillac claims that knowledge originated in the feeling and experience , it is impossible have the knowledge without the latter two . And he has systematically analyzed this. His epistemology has influenced the-eighteenth-century thought greatly, even to the early nineteenth century. However, there is such a little study has been done in our country. Therefore, research on Condillac's epistemology will help us have a deeper understanding of its theoretical value and significance.This paper has the theme of the epistemological ideas of Condillac .Based on the epistemological ideas of Condillac ,with the help of the analysis of the original code interpretation and the comprehensive arrangement of the previous studies, on the one hand ,this paper will establish the overall structure and content of his epistemology, on the other hand, it will explore the modern significance of his epistemology. In this paper, Condillac's epistemology will be discussed from three aspects. Firstly, it introduces the background of his epistemology. The Enlightenment, which promoted"ration"as its core, had prevailed in Eighteenth-century of France and paved the way for the formation of his epistemology. It is Locke's philosophy that influenced him and provided the possibility of the formation of his epistemology. Secondly, the paper focuses on analyzing the content of his epistemology, mainly on sensation, on the activities of mind and on the simple and complex concepts. While having specific discussion of its epistemology about sensation, it also criticizes his metaphysics. Condillac thinks that our feelings combined each other, and forms a variety of sensory aggregate, this aggregate number of sensibility has an equivalent with objects we can identify. While doing analysis of the activities on the mind, it focuses on the Development of Higher Cognitive Faculties, Signs and the Language of Action, Memory and Liberty, and Imagination and defines the simple concepts and complex concepts. Finally, mainly by analyzing the Materialism and Idealism in his epistemology, it reviews his epistemology, demonstrates its inherent contradiction and reveals his modern meaning of epistemology-he clearly expresses a primitive "developmental psychology" in an implications of education and methodology .