L’Homme Machine
Discours sur le bonheur ou l’anti-Sénèque
- Materialist philosophy
- Extends Descartes argument that animal are machines to humans
- Denies dualism and the existence of the soul as a substance separate from matter
L’Homme Machine, or Man a Machine, was one of La Mettrie’s most famous treatises. In the L’Homme Machine, La Mettrie explains his theory based on materialism, branching off of Rene Descartes theory that all animals except for humans are machines that spend their life responding to their environment in a mechanical way. While La Mettrie agrees that animals are simply automata, he explains how humans are not any more special, and also are machines like the rest. The speech starts with an explanation that all knowledge is formed from experience and not a God or all powerful being. While he does recognize that nature is not perfect and needs to be further elucidated, it does not change the fact that God, and more specifically the Bible, is in need of clarification. La Mettrie explains how he believes that physicians are the true experts on the soul and its connection to the body, as they have the best knowledge and experience with the topic. Physicians who were also philosophers are the only ones capable of understanding the concept, as they observed and documented humans in their practice. Contrary to popular belief, he stated that theologians were the least qualified.
Through his experience as a physician and philosopher, he understood that the soul’s character is entirely dependent on the body’s ability to function. When the human body is sick, so is the soul. Essentially, the condition of your body results in the intelligence and morality of the individual. La Mettrie gives examples like how a cold can turn an individual into an idiot and when the body is under extreme fatigue, the soul ceases to exist in those moments. Every diet and drug usage affects an individual’s character. He also denominates the English as ferocious and evil as a result of their diet including bloody meat. People can even turn insane from hunger and sexual abstinence. In summary, he believed that “the diverse states of the soul are always correlative with those of the body.”
La Mettrie proposes that intelligence is dependent on brain size. Humans are the most intelligent because their brains are simply bigger than other animals. He argues that there are three theories on the intelligence of animals. The first is that the more ‘fierce’ an animal is, the smaller the brain size they have. Second, he believed that gentleness of an animal and brain size were correlated, so that the larger the brain, the more gentle the animal. Lastly, he states that the more intelligent an animal becomes, instinct decreases. With proper education, non-human animals could have the potential to act as humans. If one were to take a young ape and teach it sign language and skills shared by the deaf community, the ape could become just as functional as a human. This comparison is made to prove that humans are not special for their ability to communicate with language. Language was created by the more intelligent and then was taught to the others in their community. Regarding knowledge, what we understand is made up of the images we produce in our brains and compared to other images. In order to process this information you need a classification system of symbols, which is why language is integral to knowledge. La Mettrie believed that “all the faculties of the soul can be reduced to pure imagination,” meaning that the logistical reasoning humans have are not complete parts of the soul. He argues that the highly intelligent and gifted are just great imagination.
While many view humans as different from animals as a basis of morality, La Mettrie argued that learning from consequences or emotion is not just limited to humans. Using the tale of Androcles and the lion, he illustrates how animals feel emotions similar to humans such as appreciation and guilt. If animals do not enact natural law, then it is the same for humans.
His philosophy then shifts subjects to religion, his most controversial topic at the time. La Mettrie does recognize that it is possible that an all powerful, greater being may exist. Controversially, he argues that even if this greater being does exist, humans should not worship it nor follow a religion blindly. Those who dedicate their life to finding evidence of why God is the creator of the world is a waste of time. All humans truly know is that there are endless instruments to nature and the causes to these are unknown. To default God as the creator of everything is formed from ignorance.
Glossary-
Materialism: nothing exists except matter and its movements
Automaton: self-operating machine
Physician: person that practices medicine
Theologians: experts of theology, usually church in this time frame
Integral: an important part of a whole that is necessary for function
Morality: principles of right and wrong
Instrument: a tool
Sources of L’Homme-Machine and Discourse-
La Mettrie, Julien. (1747). Man a Machine Analysis – eNotes.com. (n.d.). ENotes.
La Mettrie, Julien. (1748). Discours sur le bonheur ou l’anti-Sénèque. Prussia