ABSTRACT
In his Leçons de Philosophie (1815), Pierre Laromiguière pays tribute to Condillac as much as he opposes one of his major claims, namely that the faculty of attention originates from a capacity that is first passive but then turns active. This chapter engages with this discussion to show that, for Laromiguière, Condillac’s psychology and methodology provided a model for radically new philosophical approaches. Thus, it is through his attempt to correct Condillac’s concept of attention that Laromiguière can use the spiritualist arguments of traditional Cartesians to promote a new reconciled French philosophy. By revealing these connections, the chapter demonstrates the importance of the philosophy of Condillac to early-nineteenth-century France.
