In Mettrie’s early life, his career focus was on the church as he wanted to become a clergyman. After he turned away from the church, he started studying philosophy and went to learn under someone named Hermann Boerhaave in 1733. Mettrie changed focuses and decided he wanted to change medicinal education in France when he was studying under Boerhaave.
In 1742 he divorced and abandoned his family because he was unhappy with his marriage. After divorcing, he traveled to Paris and practiced as a surgeon inside several wars. These wars would create his disdain for violence which influenced his philosophy. During his surgeon years, he observed different blood circulation levels with different thoughts and concluded that organic changes in the nervous system and brain affected mental processes. Because of this new belief, he would be forced to quit being a French Guard and hide in the city Leiden.
Leiden is where Mettrie completed L’Homme Machine where all of his doctrines were written in. He later wrote what he believed was his magnum opus, Discours sur le bonheur, where he explained the ‘ethical implications’ of those theories in L’Homme Machine.
Because of La Mettrie’s theory on remorse, he became the enemy of the entire French Enlightenment where he was even written a damnatio memoriae. The memoriae would only be lifted about ten years later by Friedrich Albert Lange. Even the very easy-going Netherlands were not very tolerant of La Mettrie so that he finally left for Berlin in Prussia. Frederick the Great, the Prussian King, allowed him to become a physician and appointed him as a court reader. He was at allowed to continue to write and publish works. During 1748, when Mettrie moved, was when he wrote his Discours sur. The principles inside Discours sur were hedonistic, which angered more of the Enlightenment thinking. Discours sur even got responses from Voltaire, Diderot, and D’Holbach in which they were appalled at La Mettrie’s Magnus Opus.
The death of Mettrie was interesting, as it was claimed he died from a result of gluttony. La Mettrie liked food and ‘sensual pleasures’ so much, he ate pâté de faisan aux truffes, a pheasant dish, and died from gastrointestinal issues. Friedrich seemed fond of La Mettrie, as Frederick the Great gave his funeral oration and held a feast in his name.