How did Condillac use the analogy of a sentient statue to explain the origin of human mental processes? Give the examples of how attention, feeling, comparison, and surprise develop.
Etienne Bonnot de Condillac was a French philosopher and psychologist. He supported and accepted Locke’s view on attaining knowledge from sensations and reflections. He also supported the Locke’s empirical philosophy and developed his concept of empirical sensationism.
Condillac also used Locke’s association of ideas in his works. He was against the existence of innate ideas. He believed that human knowledge is transformed sensation and do not work on any principle.
According to Condillac, Locke has attributed too many innate powers to the mind, which is unnecessary. Condillac explained in his work that how human abilities could be derived from sensations, memories and feelings.
He imagined a marble statue that can perceive, remember and feel. He unlocked one of the senses like smell that contributes least to human knowledge.
He explained how the mental processes originate with just one sense of smell in the following ways:
1. The statues with sense of smell experience an odor for the first time with “attention”.
2. This experience of smell results in either “pleasure or pain”. The first experience is then stored in “memory”, which is a mode of “feeling”.
3. During the second experience of smell, there arises “comparison” and “judge” which is good or bad.
4. Comparison and judgment become habitual with time. Then the statue “loves” the pleasant experience and “hates” the unpleasant one.
5. With the ability to compare, the ability of “surprise” comes when the statue experiences a new odor.