The first materialist in France, Julien Offray de La Mettrie was a scholar. La Mettrie studied a wide range of subjects and kept up with all recent scientific developments. Due to a personal encounter, he developed an interest in materialism. La Mettrie, a military physician, had developed a temperature and was wondering how "disturbances of his blood" might have affected his way of thinking. He came to the conclusion that thinking was simply a byproduct of the body's recognized physiological processes. In the composition Man a Machine (L'homme machine in French), La Mettrie had come up with incredibly radical ideas and had published it anonymously. The author had polemicized his own teaching about the substantial forms in that treatise. For this reason, "Man a Machine" is a polemical composition that does not contain new discoveries, but is directed towards the propagation of the author's materialistic views1. The author expressed his negative opinion about the Cartesian Doctrine of two substances. He considered it completely arbitrary. La Mettrie considered only medicine as the source of human knowledge. According to his beliefs, experiments and observations are contained in countless numbers in the annals of physicians that are philosophers, but not philosophers, who were not doctors. He stated that a man is a complicated machine, so it is impossible to compose a clear idea about it at once and determine it. All theoretical studies of the greatest philosophers of that time, based on attempts to move forward in solving the issue of what human is, were fruitless. It is possible to achieve some result only by practically trying to dismember one's soul the way his or her organs of the body are
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1 Hong, Sungook. Man and Machine in the 1960s. Techné 7:3. Spring 2004.
dismembered. La Mettrie meant the influence of all sorts of physical conditions on the life of the soul, about the effect of disease and health, on the effect on the soul of opium, food, coffee and other liquids and substances2. Additionally, according to La Mettrie, the first merit of a person is his organization and education is the second one. All those statements had caused aggression towards La Mettrie from other philosophers, so the author explained his position on what human body is, how people are able to feel and think, and also whether the comparison with machines is correct.
La Mettrie argued against the Cartesian position that animals are devoid of any sensitivity, believing that all living things have the same ability to feel, and this is characteristic not only of humans, but also of all animals3. According to the author's opinion, man is significantly different from mechanical devices, since he pr she is a machine of a special kind, capable of feeling, thinking, and distinguishing good from evil. A human is a mechanism that is not triggered mechanically, but can be turned on through the ingestion of nutrient juice from the food into the bloodstream. It is a complicated system that it is absolutely impossible to compose a clear idea about it, and therefore, to give an accurate definition. That is why all the researches of a priori the most important philosophers, who wanted to soar on the wings of reason, were in vain. Therefore, only by researching a posteriori, which means trying to find the soul as it were
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2 Becker, F.C. Reviewed Work: Man a Machine by Julian Offray de La Mettrie. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, v. 10, (21), pp. 582-584.
3 Fossati, W. J. Maximum Influence from Minimum Abilities: La Mettrie and Radical Materialism.
inside the organs of the body, it is hard to say the very nature of man, but to achieve in this area the maximum degree of probability.
In fact, La Mettrie was the first of the philosophers, who expressed the idea of the possibility of the origin of man from animals4. He also believed that the reasons for the appearance of man must be explained not only by biological factors, for the formation of man a language, articulate speech is required. For him, it was also important to educate a person. Human body is a self-winding machine, a living embodiment of an uninterrupted movement. Food restores in him that which is devoured by a fever. Without food, one's soul would succumb, fall into a frenzy and, finally, die. It can be compared to a candle that flashes for a moment before it finally goes out. However, if one feeds his or her body and fills its vessels with life-giving juices and refreshing drinks, then the soul would become vigorous and filled with proud courage.
The author believed that human is a treacherous, cunning, dangerous and insidious animal by his or her nature, so all people are born evil. His virtue was considered only the result of the education that a person receives in the process of life in society. The opportunities for a decent upbringing are very large, since under the influence of education people always turn from one direction to another one. Nonetheless, La Mettrie did not aim at denial of the innate nature of some negative traits in a human. Undoubtedly, the likening of every person to a machine can cause ironic associations. However, the author's statements might be naïve but his uncompromising materialistic position sharpened the problem of all humans, which is primarily
connected with the problem of the soul. The question is: "Is a soul a person? Or is it only a part
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4 Shaliz, Cosma Rohilla. Man a Machine. Translated by Bussey, 1995. Marxists.org.
of it? If not, then what is it?". It seems like La Mettrie knows the answer. He stated that one's soul is somehow spatially localized and, therefore, it is one's body. For this reason, it can be both isolated, and shown. All the philosophical systems that considered the human soul and it can be reduced to two main things: the first, of more ancient origin, is the system of materialism, and the second is the system of spiritualism.
The image of a man that the author created and that he himself had been striving to follow, created him a scandalous fame. Believing that prejudices and errors were the basis of social development of the time, he believed that philosophy should have been cultivated the truth. The existing system of laws has had to change under the influence of philosophy. Only philosophy reveals errors and injustice of laws, only it has a definite point of view, in order to judge honestly or dishonestly. Thus, philosophy is the means of a true transformation of society on a progressive basis. La Mettrie was confident that statesmen should have been philosophers in order to successfully manage the state, acted as a supporter of enlightened absolutism.
In the book "Man a Machine" a man is really treated as a machine, but quite complex. "A man is so complex a machine", the author noted, "that it is absolutely impossible to compose a clear idea about it, and therefore to give an exact definition" (p, 17)5. Nevertheless, from his point of view, in human everything is always arranged mechanically. All animals' natural life and automatic movements are due to their action. In fact, one's body automatically shudders, stricken with horror at the sight of an unexpected abyss.
As for the spiritual ideal, La Mettrie believed that it was the invention of theologians. The
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5 La Mettrie, Julien Offray. Man a Machine. Translated by Gertrude Carman Bussey. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
soul is "a meaningless term, beyond which there is no idea, and which the sensible mind can use only to clothe that part of our body that thinks" (page 19)6. As for the essence of thinking, the thought, in the author's opinion, is only an "ability to feel" and "the thinking soul is nothing but a sentient soul, looking at contemplation of ideas and reasoning" (page20)7. According to the author's statements, there is one substance in the Universe, and man is its highest manifestation. All abilities of the soul depend on the special organization of the brain and body, and, therefore, are the result of the organization. Human body is a self-winding machine, and the state of the soul corresponds to a similar state of the body. Whole bodies or parts of them have a driving origin. The soul is the driving principle, the main element in the machine. All the components of the soul can be reduced to their imagining. To thrive in the sciences and the arts, a strong imagination is needed. Man and animals obey one natural law: they do not do to others what you do not want yourself, but human's advantage is the organization of the brain and upbringing.
The anonymity of the publication did not save the author from exposure, and La Mettrie realized the danger that he exposed himself to. A few months before edition of the "Man a Machine" has been published, the author had been in search of shelter from threatening his persecution8. Maupertuis was then president of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and enjoyed the great favor of Frederick II, who advertised his patronage of writers, scholars, philosophers of Maupertuis was not only ideologically is close to La Mettrie. Meanwhile, a rumor spread
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6,7 La Mettrie, Julien Offray. Man a Machine. Translated by Gertrude Carman Bussey. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
8 Green, Patricia. The Influence of Seventeenth Century Philosophers on Romanticism. Bellaire High School, 2017.
throughout the city that the author of the book was La Mettrie. If that rumor would reach the authorities and warn the philosopher, the author should have not been bothered. Influential circles demanded his head to be cut off. Under the cover of night he walks away from Leiden, hiding in the shepherds' huts and finally leaving the country where, the author has became a victim of the same intolerance from which he fled from France. For La Mettrie the patronage of northern Solomon, the Prussian king, was a salvation. At a time when it was clear that he could have not been able to escape punishment, he was beyond the reach of fanatics.
On February 8th, 1848, the Berlin newspaper has reported on the arrival of the famous "doctor" La Mettrie9. Friedrich immediately provides La Mettrie's position as a court physician and his personal reader, and soon appoints its member of the Academy of Sciences. Although the Academy was headed by outstanding representative progressive ideas of the time, it was dominated by extremely reactionary views. The king has exposed to exile sympathy and interest. He has been spending whole days in the company of La Mettrie, who has become his beloved interlocutor. Human body was given by nature, so all pleasures to which it calls should be appreciated. They are beautiful, since they are natural. La Mettrie has fully joined to that thought Montaigne10. There is nothing shameful or vicious in the natural body, and the author had painted sensual pleasures with such details that were supposed to make a big man out of himself.
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9 Kurtz, J. H. Church History. Second Edition, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893.
10 Wasserman, Edward. Humans, animals, and computers: Minding machines? Researchgate.
Summing it up, it should be concluded that according to the author's beliefs and statements, a man can be compared both to a machine, and to an animal. However, in contrast to them both, a man needs to have a public life, since this is a necessary condition for the formation of man. La Mettrie had the opposite opinion than anyone at that time had to have. Anyone who did had to face a danger. In any case, nowadays the book is a great example of a genius philosopher. Anyone should read this book and make own conclusions, however, for some people comparison to machines might be not appropriate.
Bibliography
Becker, F.C. Reviewed Work: Man a Machine by Julian Offray de La Mettrie. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, v. 10, (21), pp. 582-584.
Fossati, W. J. Maximum Influence from Minimum Abilities: La Mettrie and Radical Materialism. https://maritain.nd.edu/ama/Sweetman/Sweetman04.pdf.
Green, Patricia. The Influence of Seventeenth Century Philosophers on Romanticism. Bellaire High School, 2017. http://uh.edu/honors/Programs-Minors/honors-and-the-schools/houston-teachers-institute/curriculum-units/pdfs/2006/ethics/green-06-ethics.pdf.
Hong, Sungook. Man and Machine in the 1960s. Techné 7:3. Spring 2004.
Kurtz, J. H. Church History. Second Edition, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893. http://eremita.di.uminho.pt/gutenberg/3/7/4/0/37404/37404-pdf.pdf.
La Mettrie, Julien Offray. Man a Machine. Translated by Gertrude Carman Bussey. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Shaliz, Cosma Rohilla. Man a Machine. Translated by Bussey, 1995. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/la-mettrie/1748/man-machine.htm.
Wasserman, Edward. Humans, animals, and computers: Minding machines? Researchgate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313444227_Humans_animals_and_computers_Minding_machines.
