DeStutt de Tracy, Antoine-Louis-Claude, count

(1754-1836)

   philosopher

   Born in Paris, Antoine-Louis-Claude, count DeStutt de Tracy was the leader of the Ideologues (a group of philosophers who adhered to the theories of condillac) and, under the directory, was a member of the Committee of Public Instruction. Author of the five-part Éléments d'idéologie (Idéologie, 1801; Grammaire générale, 1803; Logique, 1805; Traité sur la volonté, 1815), he affirmed in that work his psychological materialism. He believed that sensibility (of which the fundamental forms are to feel, to remember, to judge, to desire) defines our own existence as well as that of the external world. It is the source of our judgments and ideas in general. For this reason, DeStutt de Tracy was especially interested in language (in the power of words themselves and in the value of discourse). DeStutt de Tracy, who would have a great influence on stendhal, was elected to the ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE in 1808.