From sensation to consciousness

Summary

Modern philosophy transformed the concept of sensation from an external bodily experience to an internal event within consciousness. This shift, rooted in the idea of passivity or 'being touched,' allowed sensation to penetrate the mind and soul. The paper examines how Malebranche and Condillac, despite their differing arguments, both emphasized the sentient subject's passivity. Malebranche reinterpreted Cartesian dualism, while Condillac followed Lockean anti-innatism. Their theories granted sensation a pervasive power that expanded the representation of the inner space of consciousness.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The paper deals with the transformation of sensation concept throughout modern thinking. A particularr focus is laid on the transition of sensation from the external – the body and his surface – into the inside – the depth and darkness of human consciousness. If “nothing but a body can touch and be touched” (Lucretius, De rerum natura, I, 304), it is namely in the passivity, in the stance of “being touched”, that sensation forces a passage towards the inside, the mind, the soul, and modifies it. Modern philosophy changes the way of thinking this passage, in accordance with a new concept of subject and consciousness, and with a renewed approach to the mind-body connection. Focus of the paper are the theories of Malebranche and Condillac, as, notwithstanding the basic difference of their argumentative stance, they both propose a new path for this transition. Both Malebranche, by twisting from within meaning and extent of Cartesian dualism, and Condillac, pursuing Lockean anti-innatism, acknowledge the fundamental passivity of the sentient subject. The pervasive power ascribed to sensation is instrumental in engendering a new enlarged representation of the inner space of consciousness. Keywords: sensation; passivity; inside/outside; modifications of the soul