Dal corpo alle parole: la performatività tra tatto e udito

Etienne Bonnot de Condillac is certainly the most influential language philosopher of the 18th century. In his writings we find a new awareness of the theme of the mind-body relationship. It has the merit of promoting a changed idea of human nature. The guiding principle of him is considered to be "desire". It is called "joint action of mind and body", "need to change the situation and get something better". According to Condillac, intelligence is a form of "doing". In this sense it is specifically "manipulation". A step forward in this direction was taken by Marie-François-Pierre Maine de Biran. It shows that the relationship between doing and intelligence is particularly visible in the relationship between hearing and voice. The voice, in fact, uses materials coming from hearing to "manufacture" something that hearing recognizes as its own and in which it is located. It is therefore a "doing" that produces the passage from things to consciousness.