Man a Machine

La Mettrie, Julien Offray de, 1709-1751Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.3

Word count: 331K words
Chapters: 34

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Man a Machine by Julien Offray de La MettrieAuthor: La Mettrie, Julien Offray de, 1709-1751,Language: English, Class: B: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Release Date: May 16, 2016

Editor's review

Man a Machine is the representative work of the eighteenth-century French thinker La Mettrie, which, from a pronounced materialist standpoint, regards man as a self-organizing mechanical being and challenges the theology and dualism of human nature dominant at the time. The book is short, its argument direct, and its tone bold; it is an important text for understanding the modern mechanistic worldview and the debate over the mind-body problem. Its value lies not only in its conclusions but in its early attempt to explain mental phenomena physiologically, offering a historical reference for later philosophical and cognitive science discussions. It should be read in its eighteenth-century intellectual context, with attention to the author's borrowings from contemporary medicine and anatomy and to the simplifications in his argument. Suitable as companion reading for courses in the history of philosophy and for critical close reading by readers interested in the mind-body relationship.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and self-learners studying the history of modern Western philosophy
Readers interested in the mind-body relationship and materialist issues
Thought enthusiasts who want to understand the origins of the mechanistic worldview
Philosophy readers who need a short classic for close-reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking cutting-edge conclusions of contemporary cognitive science
Absolute beginners hoping for a systematic introduction to philosophy
Readers wholly averse to religious and metaphysical argument

Reading tips

Read the translator's note or introductory material first to understand the eighteenth-century intellectual background before entering the main text.
Mark the author's core claims about the relation between physiology and mind as you read, then question each one afterward.
Read alongside Descartes' mind-body dualism to understand the book's targets and what it argues against.
The book is short; read it closely in two or three sessions, writing a paragraph of your own agreement or rebuttal after each.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can I understand this book without a philosophy background?

You can read it, but you will need support. The argument is direct and the book is short; readers with no background should first understand Cartesian dualism and the basic background of eighteenth-century mechanism, then read the main text, consulting a glossary of philosophical terms for key concepts, which will make understanding much smoother.

How should the title "Man a Machine" be understood?

It is the author's materialist metaphor, claiming that human bodily and mental activity can be explained by physiological mechanisms rather than governed by an immaterial soul. It targets the dominant theological view of human nature and dualism of the time, and should be understood as an intellectual stance rather than a literal engineering description.

Is this book related to today's cognitive science?

It is related in the sense of intellectual history. The book attempts to explain mental phenomena through physiological mechanisms, an approach akin to later orientations that study the mind on the basis of body and brain. But it is not a modern scientific work; its conclusions and argumentative methods carry eighteenth-century limitations, and it should be read as a historical source rather than a cutting-edge basis.

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About the author

La Mettrie, Julien Offray de, 1709-1751 Author · French · 1709–1751

Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751) was a French physician and materialist philosopher. Born in France, he practiced medicine before combining medical observation with philosophical speculation, becoming a controversial figure in the French Enlightenment; he died in 1751. His best-known work, Man a Machine, approaches the human body and mind from a mechanistic perspective, arguing that human activity should be understood through physiology and natural causation and rejecting the idea of the mind as a mysterious entity independent of the body. This position provoked strong opposition in the religious and philosophical climate of the time and has made the book a frequently cited text in the history of modern materialism. Public information is limited, so details of his life and the full range of his work cannot be described in depth; yet on the evidence of the surviving work, his prose is direct and his arguments bold, and he drew on medical experience to support philosophical claims, exerting some influence on later discussions of the mind-body relationship and the natural sciences.