IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v10y2003i3p379-407.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Arnaud Orain

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnaud Orain, 2003. "Decline and progress: the economic agent in Condillac's theory of history," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 379-407.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:10:y:2003:i:3:p:379-407
    DOI: 10.1080/0967256032000106661
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0967256032000106661
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0967256032000106661?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Finzi, Roberto, 1982. "The Theory of Historical Stages in Turgot and Quesnay--A Few Comparisons--," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 33(2), pages 109-118, April.
    2. André Lapidus, 2000. "La rationalité du choix passionnel : En quête de l'héritage de David Hume," Post-Print hal-00343939, HAL.
    3. Gilbert Faccarello, 1994. "'Nil repente !': Galiani and Necker on Economic Reforms," Post-Print halshs-00743020, HAL.
    4. Arnaud Orain, 2002. "Condillac face à la physiocratie. Terre, valeur et répartition," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 53(5), pages 1075-1099.
    5. Daniel Klein, 1985. "Deductive Economic Methodology in the French Enlightenment: Condillac and Destutt de Tracy," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 51-71, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Arnaud Orain, 2006. "« Équilibre » et fiscalité au Siècle des lumières. L'économie politique de Jean-Joseph Graslin," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(5), pages 955-981.
    2. Gilbert Faccarello, 2006. "An 'exception culturelle'? French sensationist political economy and the shaping of public economics," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-38.
    3. Marion Chottin, 2016. "Comment fonder le moi intéressé ? La fiction de l’homme originaire dans Condillac et Turgot," Post-Print hal-01708265, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jes?s Astigarraga, 2021. "A Great Success Story: Galiani?s Dialogues sur le commerce des bl?s in Spain (1774-1802)," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 10(1), pages 5-29.
    2. Patalano, Rosario, 2020. "Ferdinando Galiani’S Newtonian Social Mathematics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(3), pages 357-383, September.
    3. Paulo Reis Mourao, 2015. "Discussing Chevalier’s Data on the Efficiency of Tariffs for American and French Canals in the 1830s," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(2), pages 21582440155, April.
    4. Laurie Bréban, 2017. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Working Papers hal-01467340, HAL.
    5. Arnaud Orain, 2006. "« Équilibre » et fiscalité au Siècle des lumières. L'économie politique de Jean-Joseph Graslin," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(5), pages 955-981.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:10:y:2003:i:3:p:379-407. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.