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This paper sheds light on the relationship between nature and education by comparing Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education with Condillac’s Cours d’études. I begin by analyzing the state of nature in Locke, in relation to his defense of a natural pedagogical method. Is it legitimate to aim for a natural education, or should we assume a separation between education and nature? I then turn to the relationship between nature and custom in Condillac’s Cours d’études, and the function of natural signs in philosophies of experience.