| Title: | Innate |
| Original Title: | Inné |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 8 (1765), p. 754 |
| Author: | Denis Diderot (biography) |
| Translator: | Timothy Cleary [graduate, University of Leeds] |
| Subject terms: |
Grammar
Philosophy
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.235 |
| Citation (MLA): | Diderot, Denis. "Innate." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Timothy Cleary. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2004. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.235>. Trans. of "Inné," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 8. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Diderot, Denis. "Innate." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Timothy Cleary. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.235 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Inné," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 8:754 (Paris, 1765). |
Innate, that with which we are born; nothing is innate other than the faculty of sense and thought; all else is acquired. Remove the eye, and at the same time you remove all ideas related to sight. Remove the nose, and at the same time you remove all ideas related to the sense of smell; and likewise for taste, hearing, and touch. So, if we remove all these ideas and senses, there remains no notion of abstraction at all; for it is through sensation that we are led to abstraction. But after having tried the method of removal, let us try the opposite. Suppose there is a shapeless, yet sensitive, mass; it shall possess all the ideas that one can obtain from the sense of touch; now let us perfect its organization; if we develop this mass, at the same time we open the door to sensations and knowledge. It is through these two methods that one can reduce man to the condition of the oyster, and elevate the oyster to the condition of man. See what one must think of innate ideas in the articles Innate and Idea.