Sensualism as a basis for first experiments in the instruction of the handicapped - Its significance for the question of the educability of the blind

Could philosophical thinking at the time of enlightenment in France have be en so beneficial to the staging of medical pedagogy that it could be consid ered an important anthropological prerequisite for integrative pedagogics? Or does this primarily point to a social incorporation of sensorily handica pped people while simultaneously excluding the nonrational and thus unusabl e part of mankind? Taking Diderot as an example, the author demonstrates th e results to be drawn from an analysis of the sensualistically determined p hilosophy of the time of enlightenment in France. Furthermore, she argues t hat reactions to a sensualistially-empirically oriented foundation of speci al education have always been rather critical in character.