art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

15
Emotion and Poetry in Condillac's Theory of Language and Mind Author(s): Christopher Coski Source: The French Review, Vol. 80, No. 1 (Oct., 2006), pp. 157-170 Published by: American Association of Teachers of French Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25480591 . Accessed: 11/06/2014 11:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . American Association of Teachers of French is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The French Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Transcript of art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

Page 1: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

Emotion and Poetry in Condillac's Theory of Language and MindAuthor(s): Christopher CoskiSource: The French Review, Vol. 80, No. 1 (Oct., 2006), pp. 157-170Published by: American Association of Teachers of FrenchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25480591 .

Accessed: 11/06/2014 11:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Association of Teachers of French is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The French Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

The French Review, Vol. 80, No. 1, October 2006 Printed in U.S.A.

Emotion and Poetry in Condillac's Theory of Language and Mind

by Christopher Coski

Jtrench intellectuals of the eighteenth century looked upon their era

as an "Age of Enlightenment" or an "Age of Reason," and it is not sur

prising that these thinkers, so conscious of their own rationality, attempt to define reason itself. This article examines the Essai sur I'origine des con

naissances humaines (1746) of Etienne Bonnot abbe de Condillac (1714

1780) and its contribution to the thinking in this philosophical discus

sion.1 Language, for Condillac, is the basis of all analytical reasoning. In

the Essai, he provides a narrative of how human beings progress from a

primitive, languageless, purely emotional state to a civilized, rational state made possible by institutional language. My analysis of this narra

tive focuses on the role of emotion and poetic expression in Condillac's

theory of the evolution of language and reason.

There is a line of thought, pervasive in eighteenth-century French consid erations on language, that French is the most rational of all languages, and thinkers like Rivarol, Diderot, and Court de Gebelin hold that its inherent

logic renders it superior to other languages which tend to be less analytical and more poetically expressive. Qualities such as "heat," "passion," "elo

quence," "energy," and "falsehood" are generally associated with poetic languages?Italian, English, Greek, and Latin?while French, as a rational

language, is assigned qualities such as "clarity," "precision," "order," and "truth."2 The value of an examination of this opposition is suggested by Ricken's historical overview of the question as addressed by Rivarol and the others:

Lorsqu'en 1784 Rivarol fonda la clarte du frangais sur la logique naturelle de son ordre de mots, c'etait la, un argument qui avait fait ses

preuves depuis plus de deux siecles. La source de cette argumentation etait la theorie scolastique de Vordo naturalis. Elle s'appuyait sur le postu lat que Tordre naturel des mots etait le reflet d'un ordre de categories logiques [...]. La piece maitresse de cette theorie etait Tordre: sujet-verbe

objet. Sa concordance avec le type de phrase le plus usuel en frangais permit des le xvie siecle la naissance de la theorie de Tordre naturel du

157

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

158 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

franqais. Le besoin d'une apologie de langue nationale, et, au xvir siecle

l'amour des regies, conferaient a cette theorie un poids comprehensible. Celui-ci se trouva augmente quand on fit du rationalisme cartesien un soutien des postulats de l'ordre naturel. (79-180)

Ricken's assessment serves as the basic premise for this article?that the interest of Condillac's inquiry into rational and poetic languages is not simply linguistic, but rooted in the epistemological issues of his day, such as natural order of the universe and of logic, as well as the opposi tion of rationalist and empiricist theories of mind.

In addressing the question of rational and poetic expression, the abbe

distinguishes himself from the general tendency of his time. As Cassirer

points out, the epistemological inclination of the Enlightenment was to use the emotions as "the original and indispensable impulse of all the

operations of the mind" (105-06). I argue that for Condillac, the emotions and poetic language are not merely secondary faculties that serve as sim

ple impulses for higher intellectual operations. Condillac may superfi cially seem to adhere to this mainstream cognitive model, but my thesis is that in reality Condillac upsets this accepted opposition, blurring the distinction between rational and poetic languages, and opening the door to a more fluid and relativistic view not only of language and reason but also the interaction of emotion and reason in sensualist philosophy. I contend that, for Condillac, the emotional side of man is so essential to his capacity to reason that the poetic elements of language cannot truly be set in opposition to, or be subordinated to, language's rational ele

ments. To this end, my study will explore the "emotive spectacle" of man's earliest natural language, the poetic elements of prosody, inver

sion, and metaphor in early institutional languages, and finally poetic ex

pression in modern languages as the central element in human progress. Condillac's primary goal in the Essai is to combat Cartesian innatism

by demonstrating that man has no natural, formal reasoning capacity. For

Condillac, the mind is a clean slate?even cleaner than the one proposed by Locke.3 Descartes claims that all of man's mental functions are innate? both in terms of the conception of ideas and the ability to reason with those ideas. Locke counters Descartes by insisting that man has no innate

ideas. All ideas are obtained through sense perception. Locke, however, allows man an innate capacity to reason, just as Descartes does. Condillac

goes a step further than Locke and seeks to eliminate all that can be con

sidered innate in man's mental faculties. Like Locke, he states that ideas

originate in sense perception, but then insists that man cannot reason

clearly and distinctly without language. His argument is that analytical reasoning is by nature formal, and formal logic is propositional and there fore dependent upon language. Many seventeenth- and eighteenth-cen tury thinkers following the basic rationalist theory of mind of Descartes, had held that thought exists independently of language, and that lan

guage merely expresses man's ideas. Starting with Condillac?who in

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 4: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

CONDILLAC'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND MIND 159

turn is followed by thinkers such as La Mettrie, Rousseau, Maupertuis, and even Herder?there is a shift away from this paradigm and toward

the idea that language produces or at least influences reason. By making this shift, Condillac is then left to narrate the origin of language to show that language itself is not innate.4

According to Condillac, primitive man is just as incapable of reason as an animal (34-36). He has feelings and sensations (and therefore ideas) but he has no language and therefore no true reason. However, man does have a limited number of intuitive, emotional outcries that reflect his sen

sations and feelings:

les cris naturels introduisent necessairement l'usage des inflexions vio lentes, puisque differents sentiments ont pour signe le meme son varie sur differents tons. Ah, par exemple, selon la maniere dont il est

prononce, exprime [...] presque tous les sentiments de Tame. (105)

The earliest sounds emitted by the voice are at their core violent and ani

mal, and thus are not unique to man, allowing Condillac to maintain the

proposition that there are no specifically human innate capacities. Only man's environment, his greater variety of needs and his lesser natural

ability to survive require him to invent language while other animals survive perfectly well without it.5 But it is debatable whether the natural cries that constitute man's first language are really language at all, and

many of Condillac's contemporaries, such as Rousseau, La Mettrie, and

Herder, argue both sides of the issue. Condillac's stance is that while man's first language is not an articulate language, it is nevertheless a pre cursor to it.6 For Condillac, the elements of this proto-language are im

petuous sounds expressing brute feelings with an intense power and

energy. Such brute expression acts as a linguistic DNA which determines the form of future language. The key caracteristic of this code is inflexion,

which is meaning at this stage. Its sound quality, timbre, and vocal inten

sity denote the full range of early man's psychological states. The primi tive sign is a paradox of alterity and identity, in which each of a limited number of signifiers is polysemie, where simple sounds encompass com

plex affective states.7 Condillac theorizes that early man uses gesture to complement his cries.

He gives the example of two primitive men, one of whom is in a state of

need, the other who comes to his aid. The first, who suffers from the pri vation of an object which his bodily needs require him to have, does not

simply cry out for the unattainable object. He attempts to grab the item and flails his head, arms, and legs in desperation. The other man is alerted

by this disturbance, and turns his attention to the object of the first man's efforts. He feels emotions that he himself does not understand, and, dri ven by sympathy?in itself an effect of identity and alterity ("il souffrait de voir souffrir ce miserable")?he relates to and feels the need to help the other (100). Condillac is very careful to avoid in his narrative any allusion

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 5: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

160 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

to reason or intent in the mind of either party. Takesada indicates that this takes place in an "instinctive" manner (49). This is true to the extent that it is unintentional, and to the extent that our understanding of "instinctive"

corresponds to Condillac's definition of instinct as an ingrained habit?a definintion to which Takesada does indeed successfully remain faithful? and which explains how the understanding of such communications takes

place. On the other hand, what can be added to Takesada's assessment of that process, in terms of the output of expression, is that it is natural and,

most importantly, emotional, since the "speaker" is simply throwing a

temper tantrum. The listener is merely startled by the commotion, and feels sorry for him. Pecharman very rightly emphasizes the "theatraliza tion of human needs" in Condillac's thought (101-02). The significance of this theatralization can be extended even further, in that this primitive communication, which Condillac calls the "language of action," is nothing

more than an emotive spectacle, a comedy of human need, frustration, and compassion. The primitive sign itelf is a drama whose signifier is movement of the the voice and the body and whose signified is emotion. Condillac's very language of action is a theatrical illusion of communica tion and understanding. Condillac's focus on the expression of emotional states, sets him in op

position to contemporaries such as Smith or Herder, who see primitive expressions as nominative in nature.8 For such nominalists, early lan

guage is inherently objective. For Condillac its emotional basis makes

primitive language inherently subjective. This subjective, emotional lin

guistic prototype is the source of three "poetic" features of early institu tional language?prosody, inversions, and figures. Condillac describes each in turn, beginning with prosody:

La parole, en succedant au langage d'action, en conserva le caractere.

Cette nouvelle maniere de communiquer nos pensees, ne pouvait etre

imaginee que sur le modele de la premiere. Ainsi, pour tenir la place des mouvements violents du corps, la voix s'eleva et s'abaissa par des inter

valles fort sensibles. (104-05)

The articulate elements of spoken language and the language of action's

primitive system of screams and gestures parallel each other. In the first

place, they both express affective impulses such that an effect is pro duced on another person. Primitive speech exteriorizes man's psychical states in an act of emotional mimesis.9 In the second place both forms of

expression are movement-based. The language of action is a language of movement in a very literal physical sense. Early speech reproduces the movements of the language of action in its modification of vocal tone.

The rising and falling of the voice is just as impetuous, brutal, forceful and energetic as man's previous physical communication.10 In a sense, these two elements of emotion and movement overlap. The earliest rela tional thought and the earliest communication come from one primitive

man being moved (from the latin "emovere" or "to set into movement")

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 6: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

CONDILLAC'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND MIND 161

by another's plight, and motivated (from the latin "motivus" or "mo

bile") to help him. Primitive speech possesses the same expressive power for feelings and sensations as the language of action, and does so through the imitation of movement in its content and form. The second poetic concept that Condillac associates with the formation

of the earliest languages is that of "inversion." Just as with the prosody of

early language, syntactic inversions occur because early speech takes on

the word order of the language of action (136-37). Condillac theorizes that

the name of the object of one's attention is, in the language of action, pro nounced at the same time that one indicates the object with a gesture,

thereby signifying an emotional state. As gestural language gives way to

spoken language, the name of the object is spoken first, since it is the most

familiar of the vocal signs involved. Thus one says "fruit want," inverting what polished logical languages hold to be the rational order of subjet

verb-object (136-37). Initially in the Condillacian origins of thought and

language, the only subject is the first person. As man evolves mentally, the use of other subjects renders the subject-verb-object order necessary.

However, even in established, analytical languages, speakers revert to syn tactic inversion for a variety of reasons. Condillac outlines four main func tions of inversions in modern institutional languages:

Le premier, c'est de donner plus d'harmonie au discours. [...] Un autre

avantage, c'est d'augmenter la force et la vivacite du style: cela parait par la facilite qu'on a de mettre chaque mot a la place ou il doit naturelle

ment produire le plus d'effet. [...] De ce second avantage [...] il en nait un troisieme, c'est qu'elles font un tableau, je veux dire qu'elles reunissent dans un seul mot les circonstances d'une action, en quelque sorte comme

un peintre les reunit sur une toile: si elles s'offraient Tune apres Tautre, ce ne serait qu'un simple recit. [...] Le dernier avantage que je trouve

dans ces sortes de constructions, c'est de rendre le style plus precis. En accoutumant l'esprit a rapporter un terme a ceux qui, dans la meme

phrase, en sont les plus eloignes, elles Taccoutument a en eviter la repeti tion. (151-53)

Inversion is both structural and semantic. The prime quality of inversion is harmony, a "musical" feature which renders discourse agreeable to the ear. Musicality is, in essence, a metaphor for the relation between institu tional language and the language of action. Musical harmony is the com

bination of sounds perceived simultaneously. Melody on the other hand consists of the successive production of sounds in a linear form. This op position corresponds perfectly to the opposition of language of action and articulate speech. In contrast with Rousseau's ideas on language and

music,11 Condillac's model implies that the language of action "harmo

niously" combines all of its signifying elements simultaneously, whereas articulate speech "melodically" lays them out one by one. Thus harmony, even in institutional language, represents a structural link with man's

primitive natural language. At the same time, the impact of inversion

goes beyond form. The inversion adds an intensity or power to discourse

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 7: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

162 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

and renders it more lively. Inverted speech has an emotional aspect,12 and the weight of its emotional signification represents a semiotic link with the content of earlier expression. By bringing these two elements of harmonious form and emotional con

tent together, inversion transforms ordinary speech into art. Condillac insists on the aesthetic quality of inversions which create, through lan

guage, a pictoral representation. In terms of the epistemological basis of such mimesis, Demoris has indicated that "la naturalite du principe d'imitation n'est pas plus mise en question que celle du principe ^'identi fication" (383). In addition to the importance of imitation in basic cogni tion, the mimesis mechanism identified by Demoris can be applied to this present study, since the painting-like images created through inver sion highlight the paradoxical combination of unity and plurality in the

polysemic nature of a single sign. The syntactic element of the inversion ties together multiple signifieds in a fashion that permits not only the

expression of a single idea but also the circumstances surrounding it. I would suggest that Thomas's view that, for Condillac, the simultaneity of perception "cannot be captured in the instantaneous glance, but must be reconstructed in method through a process of directed analsysis" (152) can be seen to come directly into play within the discussion of inversions, as the inverted structure becomes a signifier in its own right, denoting, even more importantly than the signifieds it combines, the connections between them.13

For Condillac the connective polysemia inherent in inversion renders

expression more exact and precise. Intuitively one would assume the op posite to be true. But for the abbe, a single inverted sign with a plurality of meanings is clearer than multiple sequential signs each representing a single idea, since in an inversion, multiple elements directly related to a particular notion are inherently expressed in a single expression. With out the inversion, such ideas would need to be expressed linearly further

along in the sentence, at a syntactic distance from the other ideas to which

they are attached, thus causing the listener to make a mental "stretch" in

order to put the connected elements together. Inversion eliminates this

stretch. In a sense, this poetic feature of inversion makes language more

rational.

Condillac also explores a third poetic element?the formation of figures and metaphors?in early institutional languages: "le style, afin de copier les images sensibles du langage d'action, adopta toutes sortes de figures et de metaphores, et fut une vraie peinture" (130). Here again the abbe

qualifies language as a polysemic pictoral representation. He gives the

example of how, in the language of action, in order to represent the idea of a frightened individual, the only means available is to imitate the cries and movements of fear. In the early stages of articulate language, man

needs expressions that strike the listener with the same force: "Un seul mot qui ne peint rien, eut ete trop faible pour succeder immediatement au

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 8: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

CONDILLAC'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND MIND 163

langage d'action" (130). Early men's minds are so primitive that articulate

sounds can only reproduce such action through images and figures?a form of communication which involves the compilation of connected se

miotic elements in a single expressive instant. As primitive speech can

never really produce the "mot juste," speakers are required to combine

multiple elements in a single "signifier," thus "overexpressing" in order to be understood. This semiotic overloading is responsible for the first fig ure?pleonasm (130).14 By similar (albeit unspecified) methods, Condillac

pretends that all figures and metaphors have this basis of invention?the creation of speech that can be understood by the primitive mind. An important feature of these figurative and metaphorical expressions

is that they are responsible for the making of abstract terms:

L'imagination travailla pour trouver dans les objets qui frappent les sens des images de ce qui se passait dans l'interieur de Tame. [...] on se con tenta d'avoir trouve un rapport quelconque entre une action de Tame et une action du corps pour donner le meme nom a Tune et a l'autre. (142)

Abstract terms are a crucial part of Condillacian logic (40-42). Yet they are the invention of imagination, thus linking reason to fantasy, creativ

ity, and artistic inspiration. Takesada's view that "le progres des opera tions de Tame et celui de l'usage des signes sont etroitement imbriques et

l'imagination, comme instance de liaison, occupe une place centrale dans cette double evolution" (47) is an important point. The idea that imagina tion is the key to cognitive-linguistic evolution deserves more discussion than it generally receives. In terms of this present study, it should be rec

ognized that at the center of the imagination's process of abstraction is a

dichotomy of interior/exterior signification, in the sense that the process of abstraction is the creation of an analogy between two seemingly unre lated images?one from outside the body and one from "within the soul." The creation of abstract signs is rooted in the same play of identity and alterity as man's earliest cries and that of man's earliest linguistic interaction with his fellow man. For Condillac as well as for many of his

contemporaries, such as Rousseau or Herder, all terms not denoting con crete objects are metaphors, based on this type of quasi-analogy: "On voit evidemment comment tous ces noms ont ete figures dans leur origine" (143).15 But for Condillac, this takes on an additional importance in that the operation of abstraction is a fusion of man's reason and his creative

imagination. Ultimately, all of early articulate language's qualities, from the sounds it

uses for signs, to its intonation, its word order, and its meanings, are infused one way or another with poetic elements of the language of action. The earliest languages are entirely poetic in nature, composed of an exag gerated prosody, inverted syntax, and figurative and metaphorical signi fiers. Condillac theorizes that as languages develop they begin to become less dependent upon these poetic signifying elements. In its earliest stages,

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 9: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

164 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

articulate language depends on the model of the language of action because the human mind knows nothing else. As more terms are invented, the mind becomes more accustomed to working with words and ideas rather than images and emotions. The concrete signifieds of metaphorical expressions are lost, and all that remain are abstract signs. Syntax also takes on a new order, because the gradual evolution of the mind requires it. As word meanings become clearer and sentence structure stabilizes, the

movement factor inherent in early language becomes an unnecessary exer tion. Man begins to speak in prose rather than poetry (131-32). However, even here there is in the progress of the human mind no sep

aration of poetic expression from rational language, and no subordina tion of the former to the latter. For poetic expression, though no longer used for ordinary everyday expression, is still preserved by writers: "les auteurs adopterent le langage ancien, comme plus vif et plus propre a se

graver dans la memoire: unique moyen de faire passer pour lors leurs

ouvrages a la posterite. On donna differentes regies pour en augmenter l'harmonie, et on en fit un art particulier" (131). While on the surface it

might seem that from this point on poetry and logic would follow sep arate paths, this is not the case. In fact, for Condillac, this "art particulier" is directly linked to all progress in human knowledge after the formation of institutional languages:

Quand un genie a decouvert le caractere d'une langue, il l'exprime vive ment et le soutient dans tous ses ecrits. Avec ce secours, le reste des gens a talents, qui auparavant n'eussent pas ete capables de le penetrer d'eux

rnemes, l'aperqoivent sensiblement, et l'expriment a son exemple, cha

cun dans son genre. La langue s'enrichit peu a peu de quantite de nouveaux tours qui, par le rapport qu'ils ont a son caractere, le develop

pent de plus en plus; et l'analogie devient comme un flambeau dont la lumiere augmente sans cesse pour eclairer un plus grand nombre d'ecri

vains. Alors tout le monde tourne naturellement les yeux sur ceux qui se

distinguent: leur gout devient le gout dominant de la nation: chacun

apporte, dans les matieres auxquelles il s'applique, le discernement qu'il a puise chez eux: les talents fermentent: tous les arts prennent le carac

tere qui leur est propre, et l'on voit des hommes superieurs dans tous les

genres. (164)

Condillac plays with the word "genie." In the first place, he uses the

term to refer to an individual or to a mind that possesses special apti tudes or a natural disposition capable of creations, inventions, or enter

prises that seem superhuman or even supernatural. At the same time, Condillac uses the term in a chapter entitled "Du genie des langues" re

ferring to the character or spirit of individual languages that makes each

distinct from all others. Trabant has convincingly demonstrated the im

portance of the genius of language in Condillac's philosophy as "le but et

la fin de sa theorie du langage" (83), suggesting a certain circularity in

that the evolution of language leads to this "genius" which in turn leads

to further evolution. What is additionally of interest, however, is what

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 10: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

CONDILLAC'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND MIND 165

could be considered a second circularity in Condillac's very use of the

term, in that genius of one type begets genius of the other type, which in turn begets genius of the first type again. It is the person of genius that

manages to understand and make known the true genius or character of his language, which was previously hidden from the common conscious ness of his linguistic community. This individual alone sees the real nature and quality of that system of expression, rendering it perceptible by his own forceful, intense expression of that character. This forceful and intense expression parallels, across eons of linguistic evolution, the same force and intensity of man's primal emotional cries, his language of

action, and his early prosody, inversions, and figures. The ability to discover this character of the language is what consitutes

the difference between the creative genius and the merely talented. Those who are talented, whatever their natural or acquired gifts and aptitudes, cannot pierce the mysteries of the language's character. They cannot ex ceed the limitations of their own cognitive-linguistic impotence. Only the

genius with his near-supernatural abilility to penetrate language's essence

truly creates new language. In a sense, he becomes for Condillac a sort of Socratic "name-giver" without whose help language would go nowhere.

However, this individual of genius is not just any person of genius?he is specifically a writer. For Condillac, it is only by expressing the newly discovered character of the language in writing that this discovery can be

given any stability. The written form of literary composition defends the new expression from the ravages of time and forgetfulness.16

But while the progress of a society begins with the literary genius for

Condillac, that progress is not limited to language, since all progress is

analogous for the abbe. The close relationship between language and rea son means that the evolution of language is equivalent to an evolution in human understanding, an evolution of analytical method, and an evo lution of how we put information together and move forward to new

knowledge. In the hands of the Condillacian language-maker, a linguistic community's system of communication becomes more abundant, grow ing in metaphors, tropes, and figures, and thus new words and struc tures. The literary genius's work may initially appear as nothing more than a linguistic exercise of extraordinary difficulty, destined only to serve as printed spectacle to entertain a literate public. But the driving force of analogy takes hold, and shows the new modes of expression to be worthy of replication. All individuals of talent in all fields and cate

gories of work or endeavor, having now perceived this adjustment to the

language that is their analytical framework, adopt it in their turn. The widespread adoption of the newly discovered aspects of the char

acter of a language are the basis for enlightenment for Condillac. His entire metaphorical explanation of the adoption of new modes of ex

pression and thinking centers around the small semantic network of

"flambeau," "lumiere," "eclairer." To Du Marsais's future claim that "le

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 11: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

166 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

philosophe marche la nuit, mais il est precede d'un flambeau" (12: 509), Condillac would certainly have added that the torch is the work of the

literary genius. The taste and aesthetics of the literary genius are inseparable from the

concept of wider progress. All of the arts?not only the "beaux arts," but also the liberal arts, the mechanical, military and political arts as well? benefit from the linguistic evolutionary surge sparked by the writer

(164). In the end, for Condillac, "c'est aux poetes que nous avons les pre miers et peut-etre les plus grandes obligations. [...] les progres subits du

langage sont-ils toujours l'epoque de quelque grand poete". (165) At all levels of linguistic evolution?from the primitive language of

action to early and modern institutional languages, emotion and poetic expression play key roles. The imagination engages the mind in a contin ual play of identity and alterity, objectivity and subjectivity, and a cy clical passage from emotional impulse to poetic expression to new

language and therefore new analytical structures. The cyclical nature of this passage and the continual fusion of emotional and poetic elements

with the rational is the basis of my claim that Condillac distances himself from the mainstream ideology, identified by Cassirer, that held these ele

ments to be "merely" an impulse to the rational operations of the mind. For each level of language is different from the last, and yet at the heart of each is always a single overriding principal, that of movement: the movements of vocal inflexion and the body in the language of action, which serve as models for prosody, polysemia and metaphor, expressive force, and inversion in institutional languages. Each of these poetic ele

ments?either through the reproduction of the physical movements of the voice and body of the language of action, through the movement of

meaning within the sign (where the signifier is displaced from signified to signified), through the effect of "force" (for force in general produces

movement, and "force of expression" yields "movement of the soul"), or

through the shifting of syntactic elements within a sentence?creates as

much movement in modern discourse as there once was in man's origi nal communication.

Addressing the problem of poetic versus rational languages, one must

conclude that for Condillac a purely rational language, existing separate from, and in opposition to, poetic languages, can in no sense be consid

ered ideal. Nor can a purely poetic language be preferred.17 I would

argue that the problem with any language at the extreme ends of the

spectrum is that neither would allow for progress. Reason is a key com

ponent of progress in eighteenth-century thought. So any language of

"unreason" is unthinkable as a vehicle of progress. However, the emo

tion and creativity of the imagination is a necessary component of reason

for Condillac.

Progress is movement, and this point is consistent with the fact that the

parts of language which express movement?emotional content and poetic

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 12: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

CONDILLAC'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND MIND 167

form?play such a substantial role in Condillac's narrative of intellectual

progress. Indeed, there can be no greater force acting against innatism?

Condillac's philosophical enemy number one?than that of movement. Innatism requires a stable, immutable universe, and an unwavering truth

passed from God to man. A movement-based metaphysics changes this.

Nothing can be immutable in an ever-changing universe, nor can ideas ever be innate in man's ever-changing intellect.

It is therefore not surprising that Condillac ends his Essai on the follow

ing note:

Je finis par proposer ce probleme au lecteur. L'ouvrage d'un homme etant donne, determiner le caractere et Tetendue de son esprit, et dire en

consequence non seulement quels sont les talents dont il donne des

preuves, mais encore quels sont ceux qu'il peut acquerir: prendre, par

exemple, la premiere piece de Corneille, et demontrer que, quand ce

poete la composait, il avait deja, ou du moins aurait bientot tout le genie qui lui a merite de si grands succes. (190)

Condillac's Essai is, at its core, an analysis of man's intellectual facul ties. If we take this final problem as a framework for examining the Essai

itself, it becomes evident that, for the abbe, the analysis of man's faculties and their historical evolution is an endeavor whose focus is to trace the

path of future development. In this effort past and future are inextricably linked. Condillac's choice to present Corneille as a model in his final pas sage is also significant. The abbe selects not a scientist or mathematician, no military leader or king, no philosopher or theologian, but rather a man whom he specifically designates as poet. For in the end poetic ex

pression is the linch-pin that must hold Condillac's sensualism together, and sets sensualism apart from traditional views on order of universe and thought that define rationalism. What is true for Condillac in identi

fying the progress of an individual of genius, a poet, such as Corneille, is

by extension paralleled by the development of human intellect as a whole throughout a society or even the species. The genius of the indi vidual is a combined function of feeling, expression, and reason, and these elements, the very seeds of genius and progress, are all simultane

ously present at all stages of development from past to future. As it is with the individual, so it is with the group. It is in poetic expression, with its forces of movement, that the primitive life of the body resonates still

within the modern rational mind, and in which one finds the center of all mental development of society or of the species as a whole. There is in human reason always and everywhere an element, however small or dis

tant, of that emotional-poetic echo. And this echo is the key component in the creation of a viable replacement for innatism, enabling Condillac's sensualist theory to be rid of any inborn elements by linking mind and

body in an always fluctuating relationship of mutual dependence that defies the rationalist notion of reason as eternal and invariable, and sep arate from the passions.

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 13: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

168 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

In distancing himself from from the proponents of Cartesian innatism, Condillac also separates himself from contemporaries such as Rivarol and others who relegate emotional, poetic expression to a lower status than

logical expression. For the interrelation of reason and feeling means that reason does not overcome the power of emotion. Instead, human lan

guage becomes the mechanism of reason, harnessing the power of emo

tion in the construction of mankind's future.

Ohio University

Notes

aAll page number references for Condillac are to the Essai, unless otherwise noted.

2Diderot (Sourds 113-14), Rivarol (44), and Court de Gebelin (45) promote such a theory. On the other hand Beattie is a staunch defender of English and a harsh critic of French (240).

3Pariente also emphasizes Condillac's anti-innatist stance (3). 4Condillac would later state that "l'analyse de la pensee est toute faite dans le discours

[...]. C'est ce qui me fait considerer les langues comme autant de methodes analytiques" (Cours 2: 427). The rationalist stance that language expresses thought is seen in Descartes

(109-11), Lancelot and Arnauld (5), Beattie (234; 239), Court de Gebelin (1), and Monboddo

(1: 5). The Condillacian stance is seen in La Mettrie (163-64), Rousseau (Discours 198-99),

Maupertuis (31-32), and even Herder (116). For excellent treatments of this point see

Auroux, Joly, Swiggers, and Simone.

5Coski (62-67). 6A similar idea is seen in Rousseau (Discours 205) and La Mettrie (160), though Herder

argues the opposite (87-99).

^any contemporaries of Condillac show the polysemic nature of early signs, such as

Rousseau (Discours 205), and Maupertuis (34). Such multiplicity of meaning is, for Diderot, the very soul of poetic expression (Sourds 116).

*See Smith (225) and Herder (116). 9Demoris also underlines the importance of mimesis (383). 10Rousseau has a similar idea (Discours 225). "Rousseau sees melody as simple and natural, while harmony is artificial (Essai 123-24).

12Ricken underlines the emotional quality of inversion (189).

13For more on the simultaneity of human perception in Condillac, see Pariente (4) and

Thomas (152).

14Turgot also agrees that original words are metaphorical, but they are too "grossiers" to

make? any contribution to human progress (64). 15See Rousseau (Essai 68) and Herder (156). 16An idea that can be traced back at least as far as the Defense et illustration de la langue

franqaise. 17Takesada presents an interesting discussion of Condillac's ideal "middle-ground" lan

guage (55).

Works cited

Auroux, Sylvain. "Condillac, inventeur d'un nouveau materialisme". Dix-huitieme siecle 24

(1992): 153-63.

Beattie, James. "Theory of Language." 1783. The Philosophical and Critical Works of James Beattie. Ed. Bernhard Fabion. Hildesheim: Verlag, 1974.

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 14: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

CONDILLAC'S THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND MIND 169

Berkeley, George. 1710. Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. New York:

Bobbs-Merrill, 1957.

Cassirer, Ernst. The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Trans. Fritz Koelln and James Pette

grove. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1951.

Condillac, Etienne Bonnot abbe de. Cours d'etudes pour Vinstruction du Prince de Parme. 1776.

CEuvres philosophiques. Ed. Georges Le Roy. 3 vols. Paris: PU de France, 1947-51.

_ . Essai sur I'origine des connaissances humaines. 1746. Paris: Vrin, 2002.

Coski, R. Christopher. "Condillac: Language, Thought and Morality in the Man and Animal

Debate." French Forum 28.1 (2003): 57-76.

Court de Gebelin, Antoine. Histoire naturelle de la parole. Paris: Plancher, Eymery, Delaunay, 1816.

Demoris, Rene. "Condillac et la peinture." Condillac et les problemes du langage. Ed. Jean

Sgard. Geneva: Slatkine, 1982. 379-92.

Descartes, Rene. Discours de la methode. 1637. Paris: Editions des Grands Ecrivains choisis

par l'Academie Goncourt, 1987.

Diderot, Denis. Lettre sur les aveugles. 1749. Paris: Flammarion, 2000.

_ . Lettre sur les sourds et muets. 1751. Paris: Flammarion, 2000.

Du Bellay, Joachim. Defense et illustration de la langue frangaise. 1549. Paris: Didier, 1948.

Du Marsais, Cesar Chesneau. "Philosophe". 1765 Encyclopedie. 35 vols. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann, 1966. 12: 509-11.

Herder, Johann Gottfried. Essay on the Origin of Language. 1772. Trans. Alexander Gode. On

the Origin of Language. New York: Ungar, 1966.

Joly, Andre. "De la theorie du langage a Tanalyse d'une langue." Condillac et les problemes du

langage. Ed. Jean Sgard. Geneva: Slatkine, 1982. 243-55.

Lancelot, Claude, and Antoine Arnauld. Grammaire generate et raisonnee. 1660. Menston,

England: Scolar, 1969.

Maupertuis, Pierre-Louis Moreau de. Reflexions philosophiques sur I'origine des langues et la

signification des mots. 1748. Ed. Ronald Grimsley. Sur I'origine du langage. Geneva: Droz, 1971.

La Mettrie, Julien Offray de. L'Homme machine. 1747. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1960.

Monboddo, James Burnett, Lord. On the Origin and Progress of Language. 1773-1792. 6 vols.

Menston, England: Scolar, 1967.

Pariente, Jean-Claude. "La Construction de la sensation dans TEssai". Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale 1 (1999): 3-26.

Pecharman, Martine. "Signification et langage dans YEssai de Condillac." Revue de Meta

physique et de Morale 1 (1999): 53-80.

Ricken, Ulrich. "La Liaison des idees selon Condillac et la clarte du frangais". Dix-huitieme sie cle 1 (1969): 179-93.

Rivarol, Antoine. De VUniversality de la langue frangaise. 1784. Boston: Ginn, 1919.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discours sur I'origine de I'inegalite. 1755. Paris: Flammarion, 1971.

_ . Essai sur I'origine des langues. 1781. Paris: Gallimard, 1990.

Simone, Rafaele. "Languages as methodes analytiques in Condillac." Spectulative Grammar, Universal Grammar and Philosophical Analysis of Language. Eds. Dino Buzzetti and Maurizion Ferriani. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1987. 65-73.

Smith, Adam. Considerations Concerning the First Formation of Languages and the Different Genius of Original and Compounded Languages. 1761. The Early Writings of Adam Smith. Ed.

J. Ralph Lindgren. New York: Kelley, 1967.

Swiggers, Pierre. "La Semiotique de Condillac ou la pensee dans la pensee." Condillac et les

problemes du langage. Ed. Jean Sgard. Geneva: Slatkine, 1982. 221-42.

Takesada, T. "Imagination et langage dans YEssai sur I'origine des connaissances humaines de Condillac". Condillac et les problemes du langage. Ed. Jean Sgard. Geneva: Slatkine, 1982. 47-58.

Thomas, Downing. "Competing Models of Sensibility in Condillac: The Chateau and the

Harpsichord." Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 25 (1996): 147-65.

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 15: art. Emotion and poetry in Condillac´s theory of language

170 FRENCH REVIEW 80.1

Trabant, Jiirgen. "Du genie aux genes des langues". Et le genie des langues? Ed. Henri

Meschonnic. Saint-Denis: PU de Vincennes, 2000. 79-102.

Turgot, Anne-Robert-Jacques, baron de l'Aune. Remarques critiques sur les reflexions phi

losovhiques de Mauptertuis. 1805. Sur l'origine des langues. Ed. Ronald Grimsley. Geneva:

Droz, 1971.

This content downloaded from 157.92.4.12 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions