La Mettrie

LA METRIE Julien Offrey (Julien Offrey de la Mettrie, 1709-51), physician, one of the brilliant representatives of French materialism of the 18th century. He initially received a theological education and was for some time attracted to Jansenism, having written a book on the latter at the age of 15. However, he soon departs from theology and with zeal begins the study of physics and medicine. At 19, L. receives the title of physician and moves to his native city of St. Malo, where he practices. French medicine, however, does not satisfy him, and he goes to Leiden to the greatest physician of his time, Boerhaave, with whom he studies both theoretical medicine and questions of natural science. Simultaneously, he works on translations into French of Boerhaave's medical works, several of which L. supplemented with additions and comments, having the character of independent works and representing examples of polemical art, such as the article directed against the member of the Parisian medical faculty, Jean Astruc, in the appendix to Boerhaave's work 'La theorie chimique de la terre' (P., 1741). From L.'s original medical works are known: 'Lettres de M. D. L. M.', 'Docteur en me-decine', 'Sur Tart de conserver la sante et de pro longer la vie' (P., 1738), as well as 'Nou-veau traite des maladies veneriennes' (P., 1739), which provoked a sharp criticism from Astruc. Upon returning from Holland, L. first lived in St. Malo, and then moved to Paris, where he served as a military doctor in the guard. He took part in a number of battles. Being one of the first-class masters of the word, possessing in perfection the pamphlet and satire as a form of literary expression, L. in his time in Paris mercilessly mocked in his works the state of medicine, the art of healing, and the doctors themselves, without regard to persons, thereby making many enemies for himself. In the satire 'La politique du medecin de Machiavel' published in 1746 in Amsterdam, L. subjected to destructive criticism both the scholasticism of the Parisian Medical Faculty and the most outstanding physicians of his time. The Faculty demanded the burning of this book, and L. himself was forced, to avoid arrest, to leave France and return to Holland. Here L. wrote his classic work 'Man-Machine'. The appearance of this book increased the number of his enemies, mainly among the Dutch clergy, which demanded the death penalty for L. L. flees to Germany, where he finds refuge with King Frederick II. Here he continues to write his philosophical works, which elevated him to the classics of materialism. In the book 'Man-Machine', as well as in a number of other works, e.g. 'Treatise on the Soul' and a commentary on Boerhaave's physiology, L. expresses views that had great significance for physiology and at that time played a major role alongside 'Elementa Physiologiae' of his contemporary Haller. In response to Haller's attempt, who was in the nets of theology, to accuse L. of plagiarism, L. dedicated to him his book 'Man-Machine', striking at the very foundations of religion. Even the title of the book can create the impression of the author of 'Man-Machine' (such an impression is very widespread) as a thinker who crudely mechanically represents the complex processes occurring in the human organism. However, upon careful reading of his works, it is discovered that along with the polemically sharpened assertion that people are perpendicular crawling machines, L. reveals a deep understanding of complex physiol. processes in their interconnection. According to L., a sick organism restores its forces 'by means of the art of persons (doctors), knowing it, but not as 'clockmakers' (anatomists), but as physico-chemists'. He speaks of the same in his negative attitude towards the passions of the era for living automata. The most valuable in L.'s works is his interpretation of complex psych. processes. The materialist branch of sensationalism found in him its most vivid exponent. Based on observations of the dependence of psych. activity on various pathological states both in itself (during fever) and in the sick, L. gave in a number of his works ('Man-Machine', 'Treatise on the Soul') a consistently materialist representation of psych. activity. He paid special attention to the study of the nervous system and gave fundamental laws of sensation that have not lost their significance even at the present time. Dubois-Reymond rightly calls L. the founder of the inductive method in the study of psych. processes. Stopping on the main question of the 'ability of matter to feel', L. considers that sensation, or the ability to feel, is a property of organized matter, leaving open the question of the ability of sensations of unorganized matter. In his general biological views, L. goes far beyond the level of his era. Like Diderot, he stands somewhat apart among the French materialists who created mechanistic. concepts of vital phenomena. L. clearly represents the development of the organic world in time and, contrary to the prevailing views, denies spontaneous generation. L. attempts to construct an organic ladder of beings and conducts a comparison of plants and animals ('Man-Plant'). Thoroughly permeated with materialist monism and clearly representing the circulation of substances in nature, the great materialist did not see the boundary between life and death. In the sphere of social phenomena, however, L. remained the same mechanist as other materialists of the 18th century. In 'Epicurean System' is given a bright materialist system of happiness, denying happiness 'in heaven' and in the other world. - According to L., the education of personality has in the main three sources: 1) heredity, 2) organization (constitution) and 3) upbringing. He attached special importance to the latter factor, operating with it for the same purposes of criticizing ideas about the soul. L. died, having poisoned himself at a dinner with the French ambassador in Berlin on poor-quality pâté. Being a supporter of bloodletting in poisonings, the physician-philosopher stubbornly refused to take emetics and died, wishing to prove that poisoning can be treated by bloodletting. La Mettrie resolutely refused before death to accept a priest. - Bourgeois history of philosophy, and especially the hypocritical press of that time slandered this great materialist. However, at the present time there can be no doubt that L. was one of the central figures ('concentration', according to Marx) of French materialism - a powerful weapon of the struggle of the French revolutionary bourgeoisie. In the Russian language, L.'s 'Selected Works' have been published (with a preface by A. Deborin, M- L., 1925).