La Mettrie
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Julien Offray de La Mettrie (; November 23, 1709 – November 11, 1751) was a French
physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
and philosopher, and one of the earliest of the
French materialists French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
of the Enlightenment. He is best known for his 1747 work '' L'homme machine'' (''Man a Machine''). La Mettrie is most remembered for taking the position that humans are complex animals and no more have souls than other animals do. He considered that the mind is part of the body and that life should be lived so as to produce pleasure ( hedonism). His views were so controversial that he had to flee France and settle in Berlin.


Early life

La Mettrie was born at
Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...
in Brittany on November 23, 1709, and was the son of a prosperous textile merchant. His initial schooling took place in the colleges of Coutances and Caen. After attending the Collège du Plessis in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, he seemed to have acquired a vocational interest in becoming a clergyman, but after studying
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
in the
Jansenist Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...
schools for some years, his interests turned away from the
Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...
. In 1725, La Mettrie entered the
College d'Harcourt A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
to study philosophy and natural science, probably graduating around 1728. At this time, D'Harcourt was pioneering the teaching of
Cartesianism Cartesianism is the philosophical and scientific system of René Descartes and its subsequent development by other seventeenth century thinkers, most notably François Poullain de la Barre, Nicolas Malebranche and Baruch Spinoza. Descartes is o ...
in France.Aram Vartanian, ''La Mettrie's ''L'Homme Machine'': A Study in the Origins of an Idea'' (Princeton University Press, 1960), p. 2-12 In 1734, he went on to study under Hermann Boerhaave, a renowned physician who, similarly, had originally intended on becoming a clergyman. It was under Boerhaave that La Mettrie was influenced to try to bring changes to medical education in France.


Medical career

After his studies at D'Harcourt, La Mettrie decided to take up the profession of medicine. A friend of the La Mettrie family,
François-Joseph Hunauld François-Joseph Hunauld (24 February 1701 – 15 December 1742) was a French anatomist born in Châteaubriant. In 1722 he received his medical degree at Reims, then continued his studies in Paris under Jacques Bénigne Winslow (1669–1760) and ...
, who was about to take the chair of anatomy at the Jardin du Roi, seems to have influenced him in this decision. For five years, La Mettrie studied at faculty of medicine in Paris, and enjoyed the mentorship of Hunauld. In 1733, however, he departed for
Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
to study under the famous
Herman Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist, ...
. His stay in Holland proved to be short but influential. In the following years, La Mettrie settled down to professional medical practice in his home region of Saint-Malo, disseminating the works and theories of Boerhaave through the publication and translation of several works. He married in 1739 but the marriage, which produced two children, proved an unhappy one. In 1742 La Mettrie left his family and travelled to Paris, where he obtained the appointment of surgeon to the
Gardes Françaises The French Guards (french: Régiment des Gardes françaises) were an elite infantry regiment of the French Royal Army. They formed a constituent part of the Maison militaire du roi de France ("Military Household of the King of France") under the ...
regiment, taking part in several battles during the
War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's ...
. This experience would instill in him a deep aversion to violence which is evident in his philosophical writings. Much of his time, however, was spent in Paris, and it is likely that during this time he made the acquaintance of
Maupertuis Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (; ; 1698 – 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the ...
and the Marquise de Châtelet. It was in these years, during an attack of
fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...
, that he made observations on himself with reference to the action of quickened blood circulation upon thought, which led him to the conclusion that
mental process Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
es were to be accounted for as the effects of organic changes in the brain and nervous system. This conclusion he worked out in his earliest philosophical work, the ''Histoire naturelle de l'âme'' (1745). So great was the outcry caused by its publication that La Mettrie was forced to quit his position with the French Guards, taking refuge in
Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...
. There he developed his doctrines still more boldly and completely in '' L'Homme machine'', a hastily written treatise based upon consistently materialistic and quasi-atheistic principles. La Mettrie's materialism was in many ways the product of his medical concerns, drawing on the work of 17th-century predecessors such as the Epicurean physician Guillaume Lamy. The ethical implications of these principles would later be worked out in his ''Discours sur le bonheur''; La Mettrie considered it his ''
magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
''. Here he developed his ''theory of remorse'', i.e. his view about the inauspicious effects of the feelings of guilt acquired at early age during the process of enculturation. This was the idea which brought him the enmity of virtually all thinkers of the
French Enlightenment French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
, and a ''
damnatio memoriae is a modern Latin phrase meaning "condemnation of memory", indicating that a person is to be excluded from official accounts. Depending on the extent, it can be a case of historical negationism. There are and have been many routes to , includi ...
'' which was lifted only a century later by
Friedrich Albert Lange Friedrich Albert Lange (; 28 September 1828 – 21 November 1875) was a German philosopher and sociologist. Biography Lange was born in Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, Johann Peter Lange. He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich ...
in his ''
Geschichte des Materialismus ''History of Materialism and Critique of Its Present Importance'' (german: Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart) is a philosophical work by Friedrich Albert Lange, originally written in German and published in O ...
''.


Philosophy

Julien de La Mettrie is considered one of the most influential
determinists Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and consi ...
of the eighteenth century. He believed that mental processes were caused by the body. He expressed these thoughts in his most important work ''Man a Machine''. There he also expressed his belief that humans worked like a machine. This theory can be considered to build off the work of Descartes and his approach to the human body working as a machine. La Mettrie believed that man, body and mind, worked like a machine. Although he helped further Descartes' view of mechanization in explaining human bodily behavior, he argued against Descartes' dualistic view on the mind. His opinions were so strong that he stated that Descartes was actually a materialist in regards to the mind. The philosopher David Skrbina considers La Mettrie an adherent of "vitalistic materialism":


Man and the animal

Prior to ''Man a Machine'' he published ''The Natural History of the Soul'' in 1745. He argued that humans were just complex animals. A great deal of controversy emerged due to his belief that "from animals to man there is no abrupt transition". He later built on that idea: he claimed that humans and animals were composed of organized matter. He believed that humans and animals were only different in regards to the complexity that matter was organized. He compared the differences between man and animal to those of high quality pendulum clocks and watches stating: " anis to the ape, and to the most intelligent animals, as the planetary pendulum of Huygens is to a watch of Julien Le Roy". The idea that essentially no real difference between humans and animals existed was based on his findings that sensory feelings were present in animals and plants. While he did recognize that only humans spoke a language, he thought that animals were capable of learning a language. He used apes as an example, stating that if they were trained they would be "perfect en. He further expressed his ideas that man was not very different from animals by suggesting that we learn through imitation as do animals. His beliefs about humans and animals were based on two types of continuity. The first being weak continuity, suggesting that humans and animals are made of the same things but are organized differently. His main emphasis however was on strong continuity, the idea that the psychology and behavior between humans and animals was not all that different.


''Man a machine''

La Mettrie believed that man worked like a machine due to mental thoughts depending on bodily actions. He then argued that the organization of matter at a high and complex level resulted in human thought. He did not believe in the existence of God. He rather chose to argue that the organization of humans was done to provide the best use of complex matter as possible. La Mettrie arrived at this belief after finding that his bodily and mental illnesses were associated with each other. After gathering enough evidence, in medical and psychological fields, he published the book. Some of the evidence La Mettrie presented was disregarded due to the nature of it. He argued that events such as a beheaded chicken running around, or a recently removed heart of an animal still working, proved the connection between the brain and the body. While theories did build off La Mettrie's, his works were not necessarily scientific. Rather, his writings were controversial and defiant.


Human nature

He further expressed his radical beliefs by asserting himself as a determinist, dismissing the use of judges. He disagreed with Christian beliefs and emphasized the importance of going after sensual pleasure, a hedonistic approach to human behavior. He further looked at human behavior by questioning the belief that humans have a higher sense of morality than animals. He noted that animals rarely tortured each other and argued that some animals were capable of some level of morality. He believed that as machines, humans would follow the law of nature and ignore their own interests for those of others.


Influence

La Mettrie most directly influenced
Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis (; 5 June 1757 – 5 May 1808) was a French physiologist, freemason and materialist philosopher. Life Cabanis was born at Cosnac (Corrèze), the son of Jean Baptiste Cabanis (1723–1786), a lawyer and agronomist. ...
, a prominent French physician. He worked off La Mettrie's materialistic views but modified them in order to be not as extreme. La Mettrie's extreme beliefs were rejected strongly, but his work did help influence
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
, specifically behaviorism. His influence is seen in the reductionist approach of behavioral psychologists. However, the backlash he received was so strong that many behaviorists knew very little to nothing about La Mettrie and rather built off other materialists with similar arguments.


Later life


Journey to Prussia

La Mettrie's
hedonistic Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decre ...
and materialistic principles caused outrage even in the relatively tolerant Netherlands. So strong was the feeling against him that in 1748 he was compelled to leave for
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, where, thanks in part to the offices of
Maupertuis Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (; ; 1698 – 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the ...
, the Prussian king
Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...
not only allowed him to practice as a physician, but appointed him court reader. There La Mettrie wrote the ''Discours sur le bonheur'' (1748), which appalled leading Enlightenment thinkers such as
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
, Diderot and D'Holbach due to its explicitly
hedonistic Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decre ...
sensualist principles which prioritised the unbridled pursuit of pleasure above all other things.


Death

La Mettrie's celebration of sensual pleasure was said to have resulted in his early death. The French ambassador to Prussia, Tyrconnel, grateful to La Mettrie for curing him of an illness, held a feast in his honour. It was claimed that La Mettrie wanted to show either his power of gluttony or his strong constitution by devouring a large quantity of ''pâté de faisan aux truffes''. As a result, he developed a gastric illness of some sort. Soon after he began suffering from a severe fever and eventually died.
Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...
gave the funeral oration, which remains the major biographical source on La Mettrie's life. He declared: "La Mettrie died in the house of Milord Tirconnel, the French plenipotentiary, whom he had restored to life. It seems that the disease, knowing with whom it had to deal, was cunning enough to attack him first by the brain, in order to destroy him the more surely. A violent fever with fierce delirium came on. The invalid was obliged to have recourse to the science of his colleagues, but he failed to find the succor that his own skill had so often afforded as well to himself as to the public

Frederick further described him as a good devil and medic but a very bad author. He was survived by his wife and a 5-year-old daughter. La Mettrie's collected ''Œuvres philosophiques'' appeared after his death in several editions, published in London, Berlin and Amsterdam.


Works


Selected works

* ''Histoire Naturelle de l'Âme''. 1745 (anon.) * ''École de la Volupté''. 1746, 1747 (anon.) * ''Politique du Médecin de Machiavel''. 1746 (anon.) * ''L'Homme Machine''. 1748 (anon.) * ''L'Homme Plante''. 1748 (anon.) * ''Ouvrage de Pénélope ou Machiavel en Médecine''. 1748 (pseudonym: Aletheius Demetrius) * ''Discours sur le bonheur'' ou ''Anti-Sénèque'' raité de la vie heureuse, par Sénèque, avec un Discours du traducteur sur le même sujet 1748 (anon.) * ''L'Homme plus que Machine''. 1748 (anon.) * ''Système d'Épicure''. 1750 (anon.) * ''L'Art de Jouir''. 1751 (anon.)


Collected works

* ''Œuvres philosophiques'', 2 vols., Paris: Fayard 1984, 1987 ; * ol. 3''Ouvrage de Pénélope ou Machiavel en Médecine'', Paris: Fayard 2002 * ''Œuvres philosophiques'', 1 vol., Paris: Coda 2004


Critical editions of his major works

* Aram Vartanian (ed.): ''La Mettrie's L'homme machine.'' A Study in the Origins of an Idea, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960) * John F. Falvey (ed.): ''La Mettrie. Discours sur le bonheur'' in ''Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century'', vol. cxxxiv (Banbury, Oxfordshire: The Voltaire Foundation, 1975) * Ann Thomson (ed.): ''La Mettrie's Discours préliminaire.'' in ''Materialism and Society in the Mid-Eighteenth Century'' (Genève: Librairie Droz, 1981) * Théo Verbeek (Ed.): ''Le Traité de l'Ame de La Mettrie'', 2 vols. (Utrecht: OMI-Grafisch Bedrijf, 1988)


References


Further reading

*
Friedrich Albert Lange Friedrich Albert Lange (; 28 September 1828 – 21 November 1875) was a German philosopher and sociologist. Biography Lange was born in Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, Johann Peter Lange. He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich ...
, ''
Geschichte des Materialismus ''History of Materialism and Critique of Its Present Importance'' (german: Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart) is a philosophical work by Friedrich Albert Lange, originally written in German and published in O ...
'', 1866 (Eng. trans. ''The History of Materialism'' by E. C. Thomas, ii. 1880) * Jakob Elias Poritzky, ''J. O. de Lamettrie. Sein Leben und seine Werke'', (1900, reprint 1970) * Kathleen Wellman, ''La Mettrie. Medicine, Philosophy, and Enlightenment'', Durham and London, Duke University Press 1992 * Birgit Christensen, ''Ironie und Skepsis.'' Das offene Wissenschafts- und Weltverständnis bei Julien Offray de La Mettrie. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 1996 * Hartmut Hecht, ed., ''La Mettrie. Ansichten und Einsichten''. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2004 (Proceedings of Potsdam/Berlin La Mettrie Conference, 2001) * Bernd A. Laska:
La Mettrie - ein gewollt unbekannter Bekannter
'. In: Aufklärung und Kritik, Sonderheft 14/2008, pp. 64–84


External links


''Man a Machine'' - 1748 English translation of ''L'homme machine''

1912 Open Court French-English edition
(English translation by Gertrude C. Bussey, rev. by
Mary Whiton Calkins Mary Whiton Calkins (; 30 March 1863 – 26 February 1930) was an American philosopher and psychologist, whose work informed theory and research of memory, dreams and the self. In 1903, Calkins was the twelfth in a listing of fifty psychologists w ...

Full text
of same available at
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
.
Frederic the Great's Eulogy on Julien Offray de la Mettrie

''Man-Machine'' - 2009 translation by Jonathan Bennett
{{DEFAULTSORT:La Mettrie, Julien Offray De 18th-century French physicians 18th-century atheists French philosophers Atheist philosophers French atheism activists French materialists Social philosophy People from Saint-Malo Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences 1709 births 1751 deaths University of Rennes alumni French male non-fiction writers French expatriates in the Dutch Republic Enlightenment philosophers 18th-century French male writers