Jun 15, 2008 9
Soft marble

Photo: Elpidro
The Traitè introduced the famous explanatory fiction of the sentient statue was later highly vulnerable to the physiologists, but it well served Condillac as a paradigm to demonstrate how an individual organism might acquire faculties. The statue itself represents man’s perfect organic structure; were it depicted, it would doubtless appear with the regular and harmonious proportions and the generalized physiognomy characteristic of neoclassical beauty. It signified in Condillac’s exposition the universal organic substratum and sensorium, which was the endowment of all men and which provided the foundation and seat of all mental powers. As the exposition opens, the senses of the statue are described as “asleep”, and hence the “soul” which later animates the statue is conceived as totally lacking in “ideas”. It has by definition never been penetrated by any sense impression. In its course the text proceeds to awaken and unlock the sleeping senses one by one, beginning with smell as the sense which contributes least to human knowledge. Progressively step by step tries to demonstrate how from simple sense experiences alone (like the smell of a rose), the soul in the statue would acquire its full complement of desire and passions, and the faculties of memory, association, judgement, etc.
Michael Donnelly – Managing the Mind
01. Wynton Marsalis – Canon In D
(Portrait of Wynton Marsalis)
02. Bach – Aria De La Suite N°3
(Classical chillout lounge / 2006)
03. Ennio Morricone – Piano Piano
(The legend of 1900 / 1999)
04. Michael Nyman – The Heart Asks Pleasure First
(The piano / 2004)
05. Jethro Tull – Bourée
(A little light music / 2006)
06. Giovanni Allevi – Come Sei Veramente
(No concept / 2005)
07. Yann Tiersen – Le Matin
(Amelie / 2001)
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