Julien Offray of Mettrie

Julien Jean Offray of Mettrie , born with Saint-Malo the December 12th 1709 and deceased the November 11th 1751 with Potsdam, is a Médecin and Philosophe materialist French.

Doctor Libertine, it defended a radical Matérialisme, and Co-founded, after Rene Descartes, the mechanism.

Biography

He made his humanities with the college of Coutances. Intended by his father to embrace the ecclesiastical career, it followed the courses of logic of the abbot Cordier, burning a Janséniste, with the college of Plessis, but chooses the year according to stopping the Théologie to become Médecin. In 1728 it obtained the doctoral bonnet with the faculty of Rennes. In 1733, it goes to Leyde, in Holland, to attend the courses of Hermann Boerhaave and, in 1742, it turns over to Paris, where it obtains the post of doctor of the French guards. Specializing in the sexually transmitted diseases, it starts by publishing works on medical subjects. During an attack of fever, he notices on him the action of circulation accelerated on the thought, which leads it to the conclusion which the physical phenomena were to be represented like the effects of changes organic in the brain and the nervous system. This conclusion is expressed in its first philosophical work the Natural history of the heart (1745). It defends there of the theses materialists, causing a scandal which makes him lose its place of doctor of the French guards. The book as for him was condemned and burned publicly by stop of the Parliament in 1746. It turns over to Leyde where it had finished its studies, and develops to with it its ideas with more strength and in a more complete way, in the Machine man (1747). At this time, animosity towards him is such as it is forced to leave Leyde. It is then accommodated by Frederic II of Prussia to Berlin which not only enables him to exert as a Médecin, but also a post office in Königliche Akademie to him der Wissenschaften (in French obtains: the royal academy of sciences ). He then writes his major work, Discours on happiness , which is worth to him to be rejected by the author-keys of the Lights such as Voltaire, Diderot or D' Holbach.

The celebration of the sensual pleasures of Mettrie was fatal for him since its death will occur following an indigestion. The detractors of the philosophy of Mettrie used its death to declare that the atheistic sensuality follows rightly of an early disappearance.

The ambassador of France Tirconnel, very grateful towards Mettrie to have looked after it of a disease, gave a festival in the honor of his re-establishment. Mettrie, that is to say that he wanted to show his greediness or his robust constitution, he devoured a great quantity of pie to truffles. The result was that it developed a fever, was gained by is delirious and died. Frederic II of Prussia made the funeral oration and will write in the Éloge of Mettrie :

Mr. Mettrie died in the house of mylord Tirconnel, minister-plenipotentiary of France, to which it avoit returned the life. It seems that the disease, connoissant with which it avoit to make, had the address to initially attack it with the brain, to more surely embank it: it took a fever-heat with one is delirious violent one: the patient was obliged to have recourse to the science of his colleagues, and it did not find the resource there only it avoit so often, and for him and the public, found in his clean.

However, in a confidential letter intended for Markgräfin von Bayreuth, Frederic II wrote, “It was merry, a good devil, a good doctor, but a very bad author. While not having read his books, one can estimate oneself very content. ” It mentions then that Mettrie had an indigestion due to pheasant pie. However, the real cause of its death, was the bleeding which Mettrie itself had been prescribed. Frederic II ensured that the Médecin S German did not close the eyes on the practice of the bleeding, and Mettrie tried to prove to them that they were wrong. At the time of its death, it leaves a 5 year old girl as well as a wife.

Its philosophical Œuvres was published after its death in several editions, respectively with London, Berlin and Amsterdam.

The Thought of Mettrie

The machine man

Mettrie considers that all the philosophical last were mistaken by their reasoning on the Homme a priori . Only the empirical method appears legitimate to him.

The spirit must be regarded as a continuation of the sophisticated organization of the Matière in the human brain: the man is thus only one higher animal (like the automat of Vaucanson). In the Machine man , it extends to the man the principle of the animal-machine of Descartes and rejects by there any form of Dualisme to the profit of the Monisme. Its determinism mechanist naturally leads it to reject any idea of God, even that of the deists with whom he refuses to confuse nature.

Mettrie is in particular known in the history of the Philosophie thanks to its book with the evocative title, the man machine (1748).

As a " Mr Machine" , classification mechanist materialist became for Mettrie current, initially introduced by Marx, like the notable progress of its single reflection on the historical Matérialisme. In truth, Mettrie however did not replace the philosophical position by a materialist mechanist.

Happiness

Its Speech on happiness (also known under the title Anti-Sénèque or the sovereign well , 1748), delivers that he regarded as his masterpiece, made on the other hand great noise in his time and was forgotten little by little thereafter.

Its ethical principles are expressed in the Discours on happiness , Pleasure , and Art to enjoy , in which he praises the pleasures of the directions, and where the virtue is reduced to the self-love.

Recognition

Mettrie had little success of alive sound. Voltaire, his large rival at Frederic II, regarded it as “dissolu, imprudent, buffoon, flattering… ”, Diderot like “an author without judgment”, “a man corrupted in his manners and its opinions. ” With his death, Frederic II paid to him homage in the Praise of Mettrie. At the 19th century, the Marxist , and especially Friedrich-Albert Lange, tried to rehabilitate it.

Works

Treated giddiness (1737)
Treated small pox (1740)
Natural history of the heart (1745)
Of Pleasure (1745)
the Machine man (1747)
Speech on happiness (also known under the title Anti-Sénèque or the sovereign well ) (1748, 1750,1751)
System of Épicure (1750)
preliminary Speech (1750)
Art to enjoy (1751)
the Small Man with long tail (1751)

philosophical Works , T.I and II, ED. Beech (1987)
Work of Pénélope or Machiavel as a Doctor (Works phil., T. III), ED. Beech (2002)

Works

Julien Offray of Mettrie, Othon-Andre Julian. BWV Berliner-Wissenschaft (February 29th, 2004) (in German)
a figure little known. Julien Offray of Mettrie, by Lemee Pierre. St - Servan, Haize, 1929. ASIN: B0000DSSF5
Julien Offray of Mettrie, by Lemee Pierre. Mortainais, 1954. ASIN: B0000DWXQ1
Julien Offray of Mettrie appears in the role of the narrator and main character of the Romance anatomical Venus of Xavier Mauméjean (Mnemos, 2004) ISBN: 2915159289
philosophical Works by Julien Offray of Mettrie and Francine Markovits. Beech, June 4th, 1987. ISBN: 2213018391

External bonds

the German site LSR-Projekt is devoted to the study of works of Julien Offray of Mettrie, max Stirner and Wilhelm Reich (the site contains some articles translated into French).
Mettrie -- Repatriation missed
Bibliography
Mettrie und die Kunst, Wo (H) shone zu empfinden Portrait

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