Abstract

The problem of the relationship between motor faculties and intelligence, motor faculties and consciousness, has greatly challenged the French philosophy of the Enlightenment. The latter responded with as much interest as with differences of opinion. We will deal here with the doctrine on the intellectual function of motility exposed by the ideologues and in particular by Maine de Biran. The first step will be to show that the question of the role of movement in the development of human intelligence marks a gap between Condillac and Destutt de Tracy. We will focus on Maine de Biran’s theory of motor effort as it represents an important source of inspiration for French scientific psychology and for Henri Bergson. Indeed, from this theory arises an interesting notion of experience. She insists on the importance of the «duality» intrinsic to the feeling of resistance produced by voluntary motor action.