Réflexions sur la réception bonaldienne de Cabanis et ses rapports avec les Idéologues, notamment quant à la notion d’ « homme physique » et d’ « homme moral » chère aux débats philosophiques du moment ; surtout, les deux hommes ont... more
Réflexions sur la réception bonaldienne de Cabanis et ses rapports avec les Idéologues, notamment quant à la notion d’ « homme physique » et d’ « homme moral » chère aux débats philosophiques du moment ; surtout, les deux hommes ont interrogé les conditions de possibilité d’une science de l’homme.
In the works of Cabanis, Destutt de Tracy and Volney, both Epicurus and Democritus are presented as the precursors of Ideology ; the Idéologues found in Epicureanism a concern to show the physical origin of thought. They attempted to... more
In the works of Cabanis, Destutt de Tracy and Volney, both Epicurus and Democritus are presented as the precursors of Ideology ; the Idéologues found in Epicureanism a concern to show the physical origin of thought. They attempted to found their materialist anthropology by claiming, like the Epicurean philosophers, that all ideas are an alteration of the senses. But the Idéologues differed with them on the essential question of politics. They countered the Epicurean sage's ideal of isolation with the need for action in the public sphere. Their materialistic theory of knowledge is inseparable from the necessity to transform society and open it up to happeness, which must be for everyone.
This article focuses on the analysis of sensibility in the works of three major late eighteenth-century philosophers: Smith, Cabanis and the young Wilhelm von Humboldt. It analyses to what extent Smith’s concept of sympathy influenced... more
This article focuses on the analysis of sensibility in the works of three major late eighteenth-century philosophers: Smith, Cabanis and the young Wilhelm von Humboldt. It analyses to what extent Smith’s concept of sympathy influenced Cabanis in France and Humboldt in Germany. It argues that modern anthropology, based on a specific theory of sensibility, assumes a strong connection between knowledge acquisition and life in society. This article reveals the strong links between the three authors which were made possible precisely because of their common philosophical background. It proves, for the first time, that Humboldt had access to Condillac’s ideas before 1798, since in an early work on the state, the former makes numerous borrowings from speeches Cabanis wrote for Mirabeau, which were in turn strongly influenced by Condillac.
