Decline and progress: the economic agent in Condillac's theory of history

Arnaud Orain

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2003, vol. 10, issue 3, 379-407

Abstract: In the conception of history of the abbe de Condillac, one thing is really original. He establishes a causal relation between the functioning of the human mind and the history of societies. First, the understanding of humankind is not disordered: society develops, stages follow one another. But the commercial stage leads societies to divide into classes, the landowners are interested only in frivolous, luxurious objects: they have become denatured. Their behaviour entails society in a long phase of decline. However, this course is not inevitable. Condillac wishes to reform the individual in order to modify society and he proposes economic safeguards capable of reducing disparities. Life is simple, but history is not halted.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1080/0967256032000106661

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