ABSTRACT
A remarkable example of the fictional method of abstraction is the well-known fiction of Condillac which has made his Trait/ des Sensations so famous and so valuable. The purpose of this fiction is the foundation of what was called "jdeologie," that is an analysis of ideas and a reduction of all beliefs and concepts to their origin in experience, in short a theory of formation of ideas out of sensations. With this object Condillac imagines, a statue, which is to be thought of as similar to a living human being whose mind as yet is devoid of ideas. In order to be able both to admit and exclude impressions at will, this imaginary man is enclosed in a marble case which prevents him from using his sense-organs. In this way Condillac was able to isolate particular world of ideas that would result from each of the senses, if this hypothetical man were limited to but one sense at a time.
