Julien Offray de la Mettrie was born in Saint Malo, on the twenty-fifth of December, 1709, to Julien Offray de la Mettrie and Marie Gaudron, who were living by a trade large enough to provide a good education for their son. They sent him to the college of Coutance to study the humanities; he went from there to Paris, to the college of Plessis; he studied his rhetoric at Caen, and since he had much genius and imagination, he won all the prizes for eloquence. He was a born orator, and was passiona

In 1742, La Mettrie came to Paris, led there by the death of M. Hunault, his old teacher. Morand and Sidobre introduced him to the Duke of Gramont, who, a few days after, obtained for him the commission of physician of the guards. He accompanied the Duke to war, and was with him at the battle of Dettingen, at the siege of Freiburg, and at the battle of Fontenoy, where he lost his patron, who was killed by a cannon shot. La Mettrie felt this loss all the more keenly, because it was at the same ti

The metaphysicians who have hinted that matter may well be endowed with the faculty of thought 1 have perhaps not reasoned ill. For there is in this case a certain advantage in their inadequate way of expressing their meaning. In truth, to ask whether matter can think, without considering it otherwise than in itself, is like asking whether matter can tell time. It may be foreseen that we shall avoid this reef upon which Locke had the bad luck to make shipwreck. Les Leibniziens, avec leurs monade

Although we have no idea of the essence of matter, we can not refuse to admit the existence of the properties which our senses discover in it. I open my eyes, and I see around me only matter, or the extended. Extension is then a property which always belongs to all matter, which can belong to matter alone, and which therefore is inseparable from the substance of matter. This property presupposes three dimensions in the substance of bodies, length, width, and depth. Truly, if we consult our knowl

The ancients, persuaded that there is no body without a moving force, regarded the substance of bodies as composed of two primitive attributes. It was held that, through one of these attributes, this substance has the capacity for moving and, through the other, the capacity for being moved. 88 As a matter of fact, it is impossible not to conceive these two attributes in every moving body, namely, the thing which moves, and the same thing which is moved. It has just been said that formerly the na

If, then, one infers another agent, I ask what agent, and I demand proofs of its existence. But since no one has the least idea of such an agent, it is not even a logical entity. Therefore it is clear that the ancients must have easily recognized an intrinsic force of motion within the substance of bodies, since in fact it is impossible to prove or conceive any other substance acting upon it. Descartes, a genius made to blaze new paths and to go astray in them, supposed with some other philosoph

OUTLINES AND NOTES. BY GERTRUDE CARMAN BUSSEY. The most direct source of La Mettrie’s work, if the physiological aspect of his system is set aside, is found in the philosophy of Descartes. In fact it sometimes seems as if La Mettrie’s materialism grew out of his insistence on the contradictory character of the dualistic system of Descartes. He criticises Descartes’s statement that the body and soul are absolutely independent, and takes great pains to show the dependence of the soul on the body.

The influence of Descartes upon La Mettrie cannot be questioned but it is more difficult to estimate the influence upon him of materialistic philosophers. Hobbes published “The Leviathan” in 1651 and “De Corpore” in 1655. Thus he wrote about a century before La Mettrie, and since the eighteenth century was one in which the influence of England upon France was very great, it is easy to suppose that La Mettrie had read Hobbes. If so, he must have gained many ideas from him. The extent of this infl

Another point of contrast between Toland and La Mettrie is in their doctrines of God. Toland believes that God, “a pure spirit or immaterial being,” is necessary for his system, 23 while La Mettrie questions God’s existence and insists that immateriality and spirituality are fine words that no one understands. It must be admitted, in truth, that La Mettrie and Toland have different interests and different points of view. Toland is concerned to discover the essential nature of matter, while La Me

As Condillac and Helvetius emphasize the sensationalism taught by La Mettrie, so Holbach’s book is a reiteration and elaboration of the materialism set forth in La Mettrie’s works. The teaching of Holbach is so like that of La Mettrie, that the similarity can hardly be a coincidence. La Mettrie regards experience as the only teacher. Holbach dwells on this same idea, and insists that experience is our only source of knowledge in all matters. 37 Holbach likewise teaches that man is a purely mater

This translation is made from the third volume, pp. 159 ff. of “ Œuvres de Fréderic II., Roi de Prusse, Publiées du vivant de l’Auteur ,” Berlin, 1789. La Mettrie was received at the court of Frederick the Great, when he had been driven from Holland on account of the heretical teaching of “ L’Homme Machine ,” The “Eloge” was read by Darget, the secretary of the king, at a public meeting of the Academy of Berlin, to which, at the initiative of Frederick, La Mettrie had been admitted. The careful

F. A. Lange, “History of Materialism.” Ph. Damiron, “ Histoire de la philosophie du dix-huitième siècle ,” Paris, 1858. N. Quépat, “ La philosophie matérialiste au XVIII e siècle. Essai sur La Mettrie, sa vie, et ses œuvres. ” Paris, 1873. 1. “ Matter may well be endowed with the faculty of thought. ” Although La Mettrie attempts to “avoid this reef,” by refraining from the use of these words, yet he asserts throughout his work that sensations, consciousness, and the soul itself are modification

La Mettrie describes Pluche in the “ Essais sur l’esprit et les beaux esprits ” thus: “Without wit, without taste, he is Rollin’s pedant. A superficial man, he had need of the work of M. Réaumur , of whom he is only a stale and tiresome imitator in the flat little sayings scattered in his dialogues. It was with the works of Rollin as with the ‘ Spectacle de la Nature ,’ one made the fortune of the other: Gaçon praised Person, Person praised Gaçon, and the public praised them both.” 6 This quotat

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The text of the English translation has been set side-by-side with the French original in this ebook. In the translation, all passages dealing with sex, reproduction, or the sexual organs have been omitted (publishers tended to be quite prudish in 1912, but, apparently, not in French)....

The following corrections have been applied to the text:...